BX  7795   .F7  J66  1919 
Jones,  Rufus  Matthew,  1863- 
1948. 

The  story  of  George  Fox 


Digitized  by 

tlie  Internet  Archive 

in  2015 

https://archive.org/details/storyofgeorgefoxOOjone_0 


THE 

STORY  OF  GEORGE  IFOX 


BY 

RUFUS  M.  JONES 

AUTHOR  OF  "  ST.  PAUL  THE  HERO,"  "  HEBREW  HEROES,"  ETC. 


THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 
1919 

All  rights  reserved 


COPYWGHT,  igig 

By  the  macmillan  company 


Set  up  and  dectrotyped.  Published  September,  tgig 


EDITOR'S  PREFACE 

The  "Great  Leaders'  Lives"  aims  to  meet  the 
needs  of  moral  and  religious  secondary  education. 
Adolescence  is  pre-eminently  the  period  of  Ideal- 
ism. The  naive  obedience  to  authority  character- 
istic of  childhood  is  to  a  large  extent  supplanted 
at  this  time  by  self-initiative; — by  self-determina- 
tion in  accordance  with  ideals  adopted  or  framed 
by  the  individual  himself.  Furthermore,  the  ideals 
of  this  period  are  concrete  rather  than  abstract. 
They  are  embodied  in  individual  lives,  and,  gen- 
erally, in  lives  of  action.  Hence  biographies  of 
great  leaders  appeal  strongly  to  the  adolescent. 
They  furnish  examples  and  stimulus  for  conduct 
along  the  higher  lines.  The  "Great  Leaders' 
Lives."  will  include  a  large  number  of  volumes  de- 
voted to  the  study  of  some  of  the  greatest  moral 
and  spiritual  leaders  of  the  race.  Although  de- 
signed primarily  for  use  in  the  class-room,  they 
will  serve  admirably  the  purposes  of  a  general 
course  of  reading  in  biography  for  youth. 

E.  Hershey  Sneath. 


V 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.  The  DrayYon  Boy   i 

II.  The  Youth  Seeking  for  Light   lo 

III.  Gathering  the  Children  of  the  Light.  .  i8 

IV.  A  Great  People  to  be  Gathered   30 

V.  The  New  Group  of  Friends  in  the  North.  40 

VI.  The  Beginning  OF  A  New  Era   50 

VII.  The  Meeting  with  Oliver  Cromwell.  .  .  59 

VIII.  In  England's  Worst  Prison   69 

IX.  Another  Kind  of  Catastrophe   80 

X.  The  End  of  the  Commonwealth  Era.  ...  93 

XI.  The  Period  of  Fierce  Persecution   102 

XII.  Three  Years  IN  Castles   112 

XIII.  United  in  the  Immortal  Seed   124 

XIV.  Visiting  THE  "Seed"  in  America   136 

XV.  In  Worcester  Jail   149 

XVI.  "All  OF  God  Almighty's  Making"   162 


vii 


INTRODUCTION 

One  of  the  most  interesting  periods  of  all 
English  History  is  the  period  of  the  Common- 
wealth— in  round  numbers,  1640  to  1660.  Great 
deeds  were  done  then;  great  persons  lived;  great 
battles  were  fought;  great  writers  wrote  immortal 
books;  great  achievements  were  made  for  human 
freedom  and  a  great  awakening  came  to  men's 
souls.  Many  of  the  noble  figures  and  leaders  of 
that  age  were  young  men,  in  the  early  bloom  and 
vigor  of  their  lives.  It  was  a  time  of  sunrise  and 
promise  and  enthusiasm,  and  so  it  makes  its  peren- 
nial appeal  of  interest  to  those  who  are  young. 
Milton  and  Cromwell,  two  of  the  greatest  names 
in  this  famous  epoch,  are  known  to  all  my  young 
readers,  but  George  Fox,  the  hero  of  this  story, 
is  perhaps  not  so  well  known.  His  'Journal^  in 
which  he  told  his  own  story,  is  very  long  and  some 
parts  of  it  not  easy  to  read.  Much  has  been  written 
about  him  in  large  historical  books  and  in  big 
religious  treatises,  but  not  much  has  been  written 
about  his  life  in  the  manner  and  style  that  appeals 
to  young  people.  If  I  have  succeeded  in  making 
his  life  clear  and  vivid  and  real  I  know  that  you, 

ix 


INTRODUCTION 


my  young  readers,  will  like  him,  as  I  do,  and  will 
feel  a  warm  interest  in  him. 

He  was  an  unusual  person,  different  from  others 
as  a  boy,  and  he  remained  different  from  others 
in  his  older  years.  He  had  almost  no  education. 
He  never  learned  how  to  write  well;  nor  could  he 
spell  correctly — a  thing  which  most  persons  in 
his  time  had  not  learned  to  do.  He  lacked  the 
skill  and  refinement  which  a  good  school  might 
have  given  him.  But  in  spite  of  his  peculiarities 
and  this  lack  of  education  he  knew  and  loved 
outdoor  Nature;  he  possessed  great  native  gifts; 
he  read  the  Bible  until  he  almost  knew  it  by  heart; 
he  had  an  honest,  sincere  soul;  he  was  a  born 
leader  of  men;  he  had  a  most  remarkable  expe- 
rience of  God;  he  was  ready  to  go  through  fire  and 
water  to  perform  his  duty,  and  he  won  the  love 
of  men  in  an  extraordinary  way,  somewhat  as 
did  St.  Francis  of  Assisi,  more  than  four  centuries 
earlier. 

There  are  all  kinds  of  heroes,  but  every  hero, 
to  be  a  hero,  must  face  danger  bravely.  He  must 
forget  himself  and  live  greatly  for  others.  He 
must  win  for  the  race  something  that  has  not 
been  won  before.  He  must  act  so  as  to  make  his 
life  and  deeds  an  inspiration  to  those  around  him 
and  to  those  who  come  after  him.  On  all  these 
counts  I  think  you  will  agree  with  me  that  George 
Fox  was  a  hero.  One  trouble  with  us,  both  young 


INTRODUCTION 


xi 


and  old,  is  that  we  are  inclined  to  take  the  easy 
way  of  doing  what  others  do,  of  sliding  along  the 
smooth  path  that  people  in  general  take,  of  going 
with  the  crowd,  and  of  having  little  power  of 
decision^  and  manly  choice  of  will.  It  is  worth 
while  to  stop  now  and  then  and  read  about  one 
who  could  stand  out  alone  and  decide  for  himself 
what  he  believed  was  right;  who  had  a  moral 
backbone  in  his  frame  and  who  did  not  say  things 
or  do  things  just  because  that  would  make  him 
popular  and  give  him  an  easy  time.  The  greatest 
thing  about  George  Fox,  and  the  most  heroic 
thing,  was  his  conviction  of  duty  and  his  obedience 
to  it.  He  seemed  to  hear  a  voice  speaking  in  his 
soul,  and  when  once  he  felt  sure  what  course  that 
voice  inside  pointed  out,  he  took  it  forthwith, 
in  spite  of  all  obstacles  and  in  the  face  of  difficulties 
and  dangers.  In  this  respect  he  was  like  a  still 
greater  hero — St.  Paul,  who  was  "ready"  at  any 
moment  to  face  danger  or  death  and  who  could 
not  be  turned  aside  from  the  path  which  his  soul's 
vision  marked  out  for  him.  "I  am  ready,"  he 
told  his  friends,  "not  to  be  bound  only,  but  also 
to  die  at  Jerusalem  for  the  cause  of  the  Lord 
Jesus."  That  was  George  Fox's  way,  as  you  will 
see,  and  he,  therefore,  proved  to  be  a  difficult  man 
to  bend  or  conquer!  But  it  was  not  in  his  own 
strength  that  he  was  strong;  it  was  through  what 
he  calls  "the  mighty  power  of  God"-  "Love  the 


INTRODUCTION 


truth  more  than  all,"  he  used  to  say,  "and  go  on 
in  the  mighty  power  of  God  as  good  soldiers  of 
Christ."  "Every  one  who  confronted  him  per- 
sonally," Professor  William  James  of  Harvard 
wrote  about  Fox,  "from  Oliver  Cromwell  down 
to  magistrates  and  jailers,  seems  to  have  acknowl- 
edged his  superior  power."  I  hope  that  this 
short  book  may  explain  to  you  how  he  came  to 
have  this  "superior  power." 


THE  STORY  OF  GEORGE  FOX 


THE  STORY  OF  GEORGE  FOX 


CHAPTER  I 

THE   DRAYTON  BOY 

George  Fox  was  born  in  the  little  hamlet  of 
Fenny  Drayton,  which  his  autobiography,  the 
'Journal^  calls  "Drayton-in-the-clay,"  on  the 
western  edge  of  Leicestershire,  England,  in  the 
year  1624.  Two  hundred  and  seventy-five  years 
ago,  when  George  was  a  youth,  the  country  about 
Drayton  formed  a  narrow  strip  of  low,  undrained, 
clay-formed,  fen  land,  with  lines  of  hills  running 
north  and  south,  both  on  the  east  and  on  the  west 
of  the  hamlet.  Bosworth-field  where  Henry  of 
Richmond  plucked  the  English  crown  from  the 
head  of  Richard  III.,  lies  close  to  Fenny  Drayton 
and  only  two  or  three  miles  away  is  the  old  town 
of  Nuneaton  where  "George  Eliot"  was  born. 
All  the  region  about  Nuneaton  is  thick  with 
scenes  made  memorable  in  the  early  stories  of  this 
famous  novelist,  who  was  very  unlike  the  George 
who  was  born  in  nearby  Drayton. 

The  actual  house  in  which  George  Fox  was 
born  has  fallen  into  ruins  and  disappeared,  though 

I 


2 


THE  STORY  OF  GEORGE  FOX 


the  church  where  he  went  every  week  as  a  boy 
still  stands,  but  little  changed  in  the  almost  three 
centuries  that  have  passed.  The  solemn  yew 
trees  in  the  yard  in  front  of  the  church  look  very 
much  as  they  did  when  the  tiny  baby  was  brought 
there  to  be  christened  in  1624.  The  old  manor- 
house  of  the  Drayton  squires,  the  noted  Purefoy 
family,  is  also  much  the  same  as  when  the  quiet, 
meditative  boy  watched  the  aristocratic  family, 
with  their  boys  and  girls,  come  through  their 
private  door  into  the  little  church  where  he  was 
sitting. 

While  we  are  trying  to  imagine  the  Drayton 
church,  with  its  Norman  doorway,  the  two  aisles 
and  chancel,  and  its  monuments  to  the  famous 
Purefoys,  we  may  as  well  try  to  think  at  the  same 
time  what  the  sermons  were  like  in  those  distant 
days.  While  little  George  was  growing  up  from 
childhood  to  youth  England  was  becoming  every 
year  more  strongly  Puritan.  England  had,  a 
hundred  years  before,  in  the  time  of  the  Reforma- 
tion, broken  away  from  the  old  historic  Roman 
Catholic  Church  and  had  established  its  own 
English  Church,  with  the  King  at  its  head  in 
place  of  the  Pope.  But  the  new  Church  was  too 
much  like  the  old  one  to  suit  some  of  the  men  and 
women  of  England.  There  were  persons  in  all 
parts  of  the  country  who  wanted  a  great  many 
more  changes  made.    These  people  wanted  to 


THE  DRAYTON  BOY 


3 


have  the  Church  "purified"  so  that  it  would  be 
more  Hke  the  Church  which  they  thought  Christ 
had  meant  to  create  in  the  world.  These  stout 
Puritans  not  only  wanted  to  change  the  Church, 
they  also  desired  to  change  the  state  so  that  there 
would  be  more  freedom  and  greater  liberty  for 
everybody.  It  seemed  to  them  that  James  I. 
and  still  more  Charles  I.,  the  new  Stuart  kings  who 
came  from  Scotland  to  the  throne  after  Queen 
Elizabeth,  were  taking  away  the  hard-won  rights 
and  privileges  of  the  English  people.  When 
George  Fox  was  eighteen  years  old  the  Puritan 
party  came  into  open  conflict  with  the  king  and 
a  great  civil  war  was  begun  on  the  green  fields  of 
England  between  the  Puritan  forces  and  the 
Royalist  forces. 

Two  years  before  the  beginning  of  the  Civil 
War  (1640)  a  new  minister  had  come  to  the  Dray- 
ton church,  to  preach  to  the  people  of  the  hamlet. 
His  name  was  Nathaniel  Stephens.  He  was  thirty- 
four  years  old,  a  fine  scholar  from  Oxford  and  a 
strong  Puritan  who  knew  exactly  what  he  believed. 
Like  most  of  the  Puritan  ministers  of  the  time, 
he  preached  very  long  sermons  and  prayed  long 
prayers.  When  he  began  to  preach  he  started  an 
hourglass  running  and,  when  the  sand  had  all 
run  out,  he  turned  it  again  and  went  right  on 
preaching,  without  thinking  how  tired  the  little 
boys'  legs  were  in  the  hard  pews.    Like  all  the 


4 


THE  STORY  OF  GEORGE  FOX 


Other  Puritan  ministers  then,  he  preached  almost 
every  Sunday  about  Adam's  "fall,"  and  the  sin, 
guilt  and  wickedness  of  all  men,  women  and  chil- 
dren in  the  world.  He  made  life  seem  dark,  sad 
and  hard.  He  told  his  hearers  in  the  Drayton 
church,  over  and  over  again,  that  God  had  chosen 
some  people  to  be  saved  and  some  people  to  be 
lost;  that  even  little  children  would  be  lost,  if  they 
were  not  "elected"  to  be  saved,  and  then  they 
would  suffer  forever  and  ever  in  hell  with  the 
wicked  fallen  angels.  "Priest  Stephens,"  as 
George  Fox  always  calls  him,  could  talk  for  hours 
at  a  time  of  the  way  of  escape  from  the  "City  of 
Destruction"  to  the  "Celestial  City,"  about 
which  Bunyan  wrote,  and  everybody  learned  to 
know  what  he  was  going  to  say  as  they  heard  him 
read  his  text  from  the  great  Bible  on  his  pulpit 
desk.  George,  even  while  he  was  still  very  young, 
did  not  enjoy  these  sermons.  They  did  not  seem 
to  him  to  fit  what  Jesus  said  in  the  gospels.  He 
did  not  believe  that  God  ever  chose  anybody  to 
be  lost.  He  did  not  think  that  it  was  Adam  who 
made  people  do  wrong;  if  they  sinned  it  was  their 
own  fault.  He  could  not  see  that  these  long 
sermons  which  the  Puritan  preacher  gave  them 
every  Sunday  made  the  people  of  Fenny  Drayton 
any  better  or  any  more  Christlike  than  they  were 
before  they  heard  his  sad,  solemn  and  tedious  talk. 
But  even  if  George  did  not  believe  all  that  "Priest 


THE  DRAYTON  BOY 


5 


Stephens"  said  in  his  long  hourglass  sermons, 
and  did  not  enjoy  hearing  so  much  about  "Adam," 
and  "sin,"  and  "elected,"  and  "lost,"  at  least 
these  sermons  set  him  to  thinking,  made  him  a 
quiet,  solemn  boy,  and  started  him  off  on  a  new 
track,  so  that  in  the  course  of  time,  as  we  shall  see, 
he  became  a  new  kind  of  hero. 

The  father  and  mother  of  George  Fox  were  poor, 
humble,  hardworking  people,  but  they  were  brave, 
upright  and  good.  The  father's  name  was  Chris- 
topher, whom  the  neighbors  called  "righteous 
Christer,"  because  he  was  absolutely  straight 
and  honest  in  his  dealings.  He  was  a  weaver  and 
worked  with  his  hand  loom  in  the  little  cottage 
where  George  was  born.  His  mother's  name  was 
Mary  Lago,  who  came  of  a  family  that  already 
had  its  list  of  martyrs.  She  was  different  from 
the  other  women  in  Drayton — more  educated 
and  more  finely  cultivated — and  though  her  sur- 
roundings were  hard  and  mean,  and  her  days  were 
full  of  work,  she  was  pure,  lovely  and  noble- 
minded,  and  she  knew  how  to  understand,  help 
and  direct  her  unusual  boy.  His  mother  died  in 
1664  when  George  Fox  was  fifty  years  old.  When 
the  news  of  her  death  reached  him  he  went  to  a 
room  in  the  inn  where  he  was  staying  and  sat 
alone  in  the  stillness  and  thought  of  all  her  life 
had  meant  to  him.  As  he  sat  alone  with  his 
sorrow  and  knew  that  he  could  never  see  his 


6 


THE   STORY  OF  GEORGE  FOX 


mother  again  on  earth,  suddenly  he  seemed  to  see 
her  still  alive  with  God  in  the  eternal  world  and, 
as  he  says,  "everlastingly  with  me  over  all."  "I 
did  verily  love  her  as  ever  one  could  a  mother," 
is  his  simple,  beautiful  word  about  her,  "for  she 
was  a  good,  honest,  virtuous,  right-natured 
woman."  As  had  been  the  case  with  Martin 
Luther,  a  hundred  and  fifty  years  earlier,  here, 
again,  was  just  the  right  kind  of  home  and  the 
fitting  kind  of  father  and  mother  to  produce  a  new 
prophet  who  could  be  a  leader  of  men. 

George  was  an  odd,  strange  boy.  He  did  not 
play  games  like  other  boys.  He  lived  apart  and 
wandered  about  alone,  shy,  grave  and  thoughtful, 
always  "wondering."  William  Penn,  who  later 
knew  him  better  than  almost  anyone  else,  says: 
"From  a  child  he  appeared  of  another  frame  of 
mind  than  the  rest  of  his  brethren:  being  more 
religious,  inward,  still,  solid  and  observing  beyond 
his  years."  He  asked  many  questions  and  often 
sat  alone,  thinking  and  thinking.  His  great  de- 
sire, even  as  a  little  boy,  was  to  be  pure  and  good, 
and  he  seems  to  have  succeeded,  for  he  says  in  his 
Journal^  "When  I  came  to  eleven  years  of  age, 
I  knew  pureness  and  righteousness."  The  thing 
which  made  him  most  different  from  the  other 
people  around  him  was  that  he  was  so  unusually 
honest  about  everything  he  did.  He  seems  to  have 
got  this  trait  from  both  his  father  and  his  mother. 


THE  DRAYTON  BOY 


7 


He  never  could  pretend.  He  would  not  act  as 
though  he  knew  unless  he  really  did  know.  He 
would  not  make  believe  he  had  something  unless 
in  very  fact  he  had  it.  Even  as  a  little  boy  he 
hated  sham  more  than  he  hated  anything  else  on 
earth.  He  was  resolved  that  if  he  was  going  to 
live  at  all  he  would  live  a  sincere  life.  We  shall 
see  that  whatever  else  he  is  doing  he  is  always 
trying  to  be  genuine. 

While  still  hardly  more  than  a  boy  he  went  to 
work  for  a  man  who  was  a  shoemaker  by  trade. 
This  shoemaker  also  kept  sheep  and  cattle  and 
George  not  only  learned  to  cut  out  leather  and 
to  sew  and  peg  shoes,  but  he  also  tended  the  sheep, 
washed  and  sheared  them  and  helped  sell  the  wool 
in  market.  His  work  with  the  sheep  took  him  out 
into  the  fields  and  pastures  where  he  was  alone 
with  nature  and  where  he  learned  to  love  every- 
thing God  had  made  and  to  feel  himself,  as  he 
puts  it,  "in  unity  with  the  creation." 

Nature  in  the  fields  and  hills  and  sky  seemed 
to  him  full  of  beauty  and  order;  what  he  could 
not  understand  was  why  men's  lives  were  not  more 
beautiful  and  orderly,  as  God  meant  them  to  be. 
He  "wondered"  over  this  problem  more  than  over 
any  thing  else.  Why,  he  asked  again  and  again, 
are  people  so  light  and  wanton?  What  makes 
them  so  hard  and  unkind  to  one  another  and  to 
God's  creatures?    Why  should  they  love  to  do 


8 


THE   STORY  OF  GEORGE  FOX 


wrong  and  spoil  life  which  was  intended  to  be 
always  fair  and  joyous  and  beautiful?  "Priest 
Stephens"  kept  saying  in  his  sermons  that  it  was 
all  because  Adam  sinned  and  the  world  was  ruined 
by  the  fall.  But  when  the  minister  told  them  how 
to  escape  from  sin,  and  how  to  be  saved  from  it, 
why  didn't  they  stop  sinning  and  become  pure  and 
good?  They  acted  as  though  they  supposed  that 
it  was  enough  just  to  listen  to  the  sermons,  with- 
out doing  anything  more,  or  without  changing 
their  lives  in  any  way.  Religion  was,  thus,  like 
having  money  put  away  in  a  bank  and  never  using 
it.  It  seemed  to  George  to  be  something  that  you 
heard  about  and  talked  about  in  a  church,  but 
not  something  that  made  any  difference  in  the 
way  you  lived  after  you  went  home  from  church. 
He  had  an  interesting  v/ord  for  that  kind  of  a 
religious  person.  He  called  him  a  "professor," 
i.  e.,  one  who  professes  to  believe  the  things  which 
are  preached  in  church,  but  who  lives  in  the  world 
exactly  as  though  he  did  not  believe  them. 

One  day  all  this  about  which  he  had  long  been 
thinking  came  sweeping  over  George's  sensitive 
soul  with  such  a  rush  that  it  almost  overwhelmed 
him.  He  had  gone  to  a  market-fair  in  a  nearby 
town  and  two  "professors,"  one  of  them  being 
George's  cousin,  asked  him  to  go  with  them  to  an 
inn  and  drink  beer.  The  two  "professors"  drank 
many  mugs  of  beer  and  when  George  refused  to 


THE  DRAYTON  BOY 


9 


drink  with  them  they  tried  to  make  him  pay  for 
what  they  drank.  It  shocked  the  gentle  youth 
to  see  two  persons  who  professed  to  be  good  Chris- 
tians, guzzling  beer  and  acting  as  though  they  had 
no  religion  at  all,  and  thereupon  he  put  down  a 
small  piece  of  money,  and  walked  out  of  the  inn, 
and  left  the  "professors"  there  alone. 

When  he  got  home  to  Drayton  he  could  not 
get  this  scene  in  the  inn  out  of  mind.  It  seemed 
to  him  only  a  vivid  illustration  of  the  way  every- 
body was  doing.  The  world  seemed  twisted  and 
out  of  joint.  People  said  one  thing  and  did  an- 
other. Religion  looked  like  a  hollow  sham,  a 
thing  for  show,  not  for  daily  practice.  Poor, 
honest-hearted,  pure-minded  George  Fox  could 
not  stand  the  discovery.  It  crushed  his  soul  and 
broke  his  spirit.  He  could  not  sleep.  He  could 
not  eat.  He  moaned  and  cried  and  wandered 
about  alone,  trying  to  understand  the  strange, 
wilderness  world  he  was  in.  At  length  he  decided 
to  leave  his  home — it  seemed  as  though  God  sent 
him  out — and  to  go  up  and  down  the  land  seek- 
ing for  light  and  endeavoring  to  find  some  help 
for  his  disturbed  soul.  He  went  out  into  the  mys- 
terious world  not  knowing  whither  he  went,  but 
resolved  to  see  if  he  could  discover  anywhere  any 
real  religion  which  made  people's  lives  rights  and 
gave  them  power  to  live  by. 


CHAPTER  II 


THE  YOUTH  SEEKING  FOR  LIGHT 

If  George  Fox  had  not  been  different  from  other 
boys  he  would  very  quickly  have  got  over  his 
strange  sorrow  on  account  of  other  people's  shams. 
He  would  not  have  allowed  that  to  spoil  his  ap- 
petite and  disturb  his  sleep.  But  he  was  different 
from  other  boys  and  he  could  not  get  over  his  sor- 
row and  depression.  The  world  seemed  one  great 
question-mark  to  him  and  he  didn't  care  about 
living  if  he  could  not  find  an  answer  to  his  myste- 
ries. He  was  nineteen  years  old  when,  in  1643, 
started  out  on  his  wanderings.  He  went  to  a  great 
many  English  towns,  and  he  seems  to  have  tried 
in  each  place  to  find  somebody  who  could  help 
him  out  of  his  darkness  into  light.  He  had  heard 
that  there  were  people  scattered  over  England, 
in  out-of-the-way  places,  who  were  discovering 
new  truth  about  God  and  man  and  life  and  the 
Church  of  Christ,  and  he  hoped  that  he  might 
fall  in  with  some  person  or  persons  who  could  set 
him  on  the  right  track.  England  was  seething 
with  eagerness  and  enthusiasm.  Religion  was 
the  main  business  and  the  great  matter.  George 
Fox  was  not  the  only  one  who  was  endeavoring 

10 


THE  YOUTH  SEEKING  FOR  LIGHT  II 


then  to  find  a  fresh  way  of  life.  It  was  a  seeking 
age  and  all  sorts  of  new  ideas  were  in  the  air,  like 
thistle-down  in  autumn.  Drayton  was  a  little 
hamlet,  and  nobody  came  there  with  new  thoughts 
and  fresh  truth.  If  George  was  to  discover  any- 
thing deep  enough  and  great  enough  to  satisfy 
his  perplexed  soul  he  knew  that  he  must  go  out 
and  hunt  for  it.  And  hunt  he  surely  did!  Every- 
body who  was  serious  then  was  reading  the  Bible. 
Only  a  little  while  before  this,  in  1611,  it  had  been 
translated  into  the  wonderful  English  of  the  King 
James  version.  There  was  no  other  book  like  it. 
It  was  the  most  interesting  one  that  had  ever  been 
put  into  a  boy's  hand  and  George,  like  all  other 
serious  persons  then,  was  reading  and  rereading  it. 
Often  in  his  lonely  room  in  some  town,  where  he 
knew  nobody,  he  would  read  and  meditate  till 
the  sun  went  down.  Other  times  he  would  walk  in 
the  fields,  which  he  loved  with  a  kind  of  poetic 
passion,  and  sit  in  hollow  trees,  or  on  the  sheltered 
bank  of  a  brook,  and  read  the  book  that  told  him 
about  God  and  man's  true  life. 

In  his  travels  in  pursuit  of  truth  he  went  to 
London.  But  it  seemed  like  a  great,  dark  Babylon 
to  him.  He  could  find  everything  there  but  the 
one  thing  he  was  seeking.  The  city  was  full  of 
interesting  sights  and  wonderful  things,  but  he 
could  not  find  there  any  guide  for  his  soul.  He 
had  an  uncle,  named  Pickering,  in  London,  who 


12 


THE   STORY  OF  GEORGE  FOX 


was  a  Baptist,  but  though  the  uncle  and  his  Bap- 
tist friends  were  " tender" — by  which  word  George 
Fox  means  serious,  spiritual,  earnest,  sincere, 
devout — George  felt  that  he  could  not  get  any 
help  from  them.  He  found  that  he  could  not  talk 
freely  with  them  about  his  condition,  that  they 
did  not  understand  his  troubles  and  that  he  could 
not  join  with  them.  London  had  no  message  of 
light  for  him.  John  Milton  was  there  and  John  Pim 
was  there, — two  Johns  who  were  "well-beloved 
disciples  of  liberty," — and  the  great  Oliver,  but 
even  if  he  had  found  them  they  could  not  have 
helped  him  in  his  difficult  quest. 

He  heard  that  his  parents  and  other  relatives 
were  troubled  over  his  absence  from  home  and  so 
he  came  back  from  London  to  Fenny  Drayton. 
Some  of  his  relatives  who  did  not  understand  him 
advised  him  to  take  a  bride,  as  the  same  kind  of 
people  once  told  St.  Francis  of  Assisi  to  do,  but 
George  told  them  he  was  seeking  for  wisdom  and 
not  for  a  wife!  Others  urged  him  to  become  a 
soldier  and  take  his  part  in  the  civil  war,  but  he 
felt  that  fighting  with  swords  would  not  cure  his 
soul  or  remove  his  load  of  trouble.  At  Drayton  he 
talked  much  with  "Priest  Stephens"  who  some- 
times preached  on  Sunday  the  things  which  he 
had  heard  George  say  during  the  week,  but  the 
Puritan  minister  had  no  message  of  help  for  "  Right- 
eous Christer's"  son.    He  was  to  George  only  a 


THE  YOUTH  SEEKING   FOR  LIGHT  IJ 


"professor,"  and  not  a  "tender"  man,  nor  a  real 
guide  of  souls. 

He  tried  many  other  "priests"  in  the  neighbor- 
ing towns,  in  the  hope  that  they  might  have  more 
light  than  the  Drayton  minister  could  give  him, 
but  they  proved  to  be  no  better  than  he.  One 
told  him  to  try  tobacco,  another  advised  him  to 
sing  hymns.  Some  got  angry  with  him  and  some 
made  fun  of  him.  But  in  one  thing  they  were  all 
alike,  they  had  no  light  for  him;  they  all  seemed  to 
him  "miserable  comforters."  He  walked  seven 
miles  to  consult  a  priest  at  Tamworth,  but  he 
found  him  to  be  like  the  rest,  "a  hollow,  empty 
cask,"  without  anything  inside. 
Z'  His  sorrow  and  depression  went  so  deep  into 
\  his  soul  that  it  finally  broke  down  his  health  and 
brought  him  into  a  dangerous  physical  and  mental 
condition.  He  was  a  poor  forlorn  soul  in  a  world 
of  utter  mystery.  But  it  is  sometimes  darkest 
just  before  dawn,  and  so  it  proved  to  be  now  in 
George's  case.  Two  years  he  had  wandered  about 
without  any  relief  to  his  mind.  He  had  found 
the  ministers  in  the  churches  much  more  "empty" 
than  he  had  expected  to  find  them.  He  discovered 
nobody  who  seemed  to  be  a  real  prophet  and  could 
speak  living  words  of  truth  for  God.  But  gradu- 
ally, in  1646,  he  began  to  realize  that  God  himself 
was  speaking  to  him  in  his  own  soul.  Truths 
seemed  to  flash  into  his  mind,  like  wavy  stream- 


THE  STORY  OF  GEORGE  FOX 


ers  of  northern  lights.  He  would  suddenly  see 
a  truth  as  though  electric  signs  were  signaled  to 
him  from  a  central  station.  It  dawned  upon  him 
that  God  was  the  same  now  as  when  He  revealed 
messages  to  prophets  in  olden  times  and  could  still 
reveal  His  will.  He  saw  that  temples  and  churches 
were  not  the  most  holy  places;  the  soul  of  man  it- 
self was  the  really  holy  place,  for  God  and  man 
could  meet  therein.  He  saw  that  any  man  could 
be  a  priest  if  he  only  learned  how  to  hear  the  voice 
of  God  within  his  soul  and  to  obey  it,  and  could 
tell  others  how  to  hear  it  and  understand  it.  To 
do  this  one  would  not  need  to  study  theology 
for  years  and  years  in  a  university;  it  would  only 
be  necessary  that  one  should  be  quick  and  sensi- 
tive to  hear  the  divine  voice  in  the  soul  and  be 
ready  and  eager  to  do  what  God  revealed  there. 

As  these  truths  flashed  into  George  Fox's  in- 
ner soul  they  gave  him  thrills  of  joy  and  relieved 
him,  while  they  lasted,  of  his  depression.  But  he 
was  not  yet  sure  enough  of  his  new  discovery  to 
believe  in  it  all  the  time.  It  would  come  in  happy 
moments  and  then  slip  away  and  leave  him  dis- 
couraged again.  It  was  a  kind  of  a  seesaw  life, 
now  up  in  the  heights  of  vision  and  now  down  in 
the  flats  of  life  with  no  blue  sky  in  sight.  The  same 
old  wanderings  continued,  as  though  he  were  on 
a  new  quest  for  the  Holy  Grail;  the  search  for 
helpers  went  on  and  the  restless  youth  pored  over 


THE  YOUTH   SEEKING   FOR  LIGHT 


15 


the  pages  of  his  Bible,  until  he  knew  them  almost 
or  quite  by.  heart.  At  last,  one  great  and  memor- 
able day,  he  discovered  something  which  lasted; 
he  saw  a  truth  which  did  not  vanish  away.  He 
saw  that  Jesus  Christ  who  lived  in  Palestine 
centuries  ago  and  helped  men  out  of  their  sin 
and  weakness,  their  sorrow  and  trouble,  was  still 
alive  and  unchanged  in  love  and  goodness.  The 
only  difference  was  that  then  He  walked  about 
in  a  body  like  other  men  and  could  be  in  only  one 
place  at  one  time,  now  He  came  as  a  Spirit  within 
the  soul  and  could  be  in  all  places  at  once,  helping 
and  healing,  comforting  and  blessing  all  who  needed 
Him,  just  as  thousands  of  people  at  the  same  time 
can  all  have  the  warmth  and  light  of  the  one  sun. 

In  the  stillness  of  his  soul  George  Fox  heard 
Christ  speaking  to  him  so  clearly  that  he  could  not 
mistake  it.  "I  heard  a  voice,"  he  wrote  in  his 
Journal^  "which  said,  'There  is  one,  even  Christ 
Jesus  that  can  speak  to  thy  condition'  and  when 
I  heard  it  my  heart  did  leap  for  joy."  He  felt 
now  that  he  knew  Christ  in  the  same  way  that  one 
knows  a  human  friend.  He  had  met  Him;  he  had 
found  Him.  It  was  an  experience  and  not  a  guess. 
The  Holy  Grail,  then,  was  to  be  found  within7 
and  not  in  a  distant  country.  It  was  as  though 
he  now  had  a  pass  key,  a  master  key,  which  would 
open  any  door  where  he  wanted  to  enter.  He  had 
discovered  something  better  than  men,  better  than 


i6 


THE  STORY  OF  GEORGE  FOX 


priests,  better  than  books — the  living  Christ  who 
could  speak  and  teach  and  live  in  his  own  heart, 
just  as  the  light  and  heat  and  power  of  the  distant 
sun  can  be  present  here  on  the  earth,  where  we 
need  light  and  heat  and  power. 

Nobody  can  correctly  understand  George  Fox 
and  nobody  can  properly  read  the  story  of  his 
remarkable  life  of  heroism  without  hearing  first 
what  happened  in  his  soul.  We  are  so  used  to 
having  all  our  stories  tell  about  things  that  hap- 
pen in  the  world  which  we  see  with  our  eyes  that 
it  will  seem  odd  to  begin  with  this  other  kind  of 
story,  of  what  took  place  inside  where  there  were 
no  windows  for  any  one  to  look  in. 

Most  of  our  heroes  just  do  things,  and  we  read 
about  their  deeds  and  are  thrilled.  Here  we  have 
a  hero  who  cared  more  about  being  than  about 
doing.  It  seemed  to  him  no  use  to  go  out  and  do 
a  lot  of  things  if  your  soul  was  all  wrong  and  your 
life  all  twisted  out  of  shape.  That  was  just  the 
kind  of  sham  which  he  hated  most.  He  wanted 
to  be  so  clear  and  transparent  that  if  men,  or  even 
God,  looked  through  him  there  would  be  only  fair 
and  beautiful  things  to  see  in  the  inside  part  of 
himself  where  he  lived. 

Something  like  having  God  look  through  him 
did  happen  to  George  Fox.  He  thought  he  heard 
God  say  to  him:  "My  love  was  always  to  thee  and 
thou  art  in  my  love,"  and  another  time  when  he 


THE  YOUTH  SEEKING  FOR  LIGHT 


17 


was  walking  in  the  fields,  which  always  seemed  full 
of  God,  he  heard  a  voice  that  said,  "  Thy  name  is 
written  in  the  Lamb's  book  of  life."  Nothing 
else  in  the  universe  seemed  so  certain  to  him  as 
the  love  of  God.  He  might  lose  his  eyes,  as  John 
Milton  had  done,  and  then  he  would  not  be  able 
to  see  the  hills  and  trees  and  sky,  but  he  could 
not  lose  his  real,  inside  eyes  which  saw  the  in- 
finite love  of  God.  He  knew  there  was  evil  in 
the  world;  that  there  were  pain,  sorrow  and  death; 
but  greater  than  all  these  was  the  God  who  still 
loved  and,  in  the  end,  would  conquer.  He  says: 
"I  saw  that  there  was  an  ocean  of  darkness  and 
death;  but  an  infinite  ocean  of  light  and  love 
flowed  over  the  ocean  of  darkness.  In  that  I  saw 
the  infinite  love  of  God." 

Of  course  a  man  who  sees  a  thing  like  that  can 
be  brave.  Nothing  on  earth  can  defeat  him,  or 
conquer  him.  He  has  the  key  of  his  destiny  in 
his  own  hand. 


CHAPTER  III 


GATHERING  THE  CHILDREN  OF  THE  LIGHT 

At  first,  after  he  had  made  his  great  discovery 
of  the  hving  Christ,  George  Fox  did  not  yet  know 
what  he  should  do  next.  He  had  made  no  plan  for 
his  life.  In  his  lonely  wanderings  he  had  hoped  to 
find  a  people  that  had  real  spiritual  religion  and 
he  had  expected  to  join  with  them  and  live  among 
them,  if  he  ever  found  them.  But  now  that,  alone 
by  himself,  and  without  any  human  teacher  to 
help  him,  he  had  found  what  he  was  seeking,  the 
feeling  soon  broke  in  upon  his  mind  that  he  ought 
to  go  forth  into  the  world  and  tell  everybody, 
who  would  listen,  about  the  light  and  life  of  God 
in  the  soul  of  man. 

Before  he  was  well  started  on  his  mission,  how- 
ever, he  had  two  moments  of  hesitation.  One 
moment  of  hesitation  came  to  him  as  he  was  walk- 
ing through  the  beautiful  Vale  of  Belvoir  (which 
he  calls  the  "Vale  of  Beavor").  In  the  midst  of 
the  beauty  and  glory  of  this  valley  he  began  to 
"wonder,"  as  so  many  other  persons  have  done, 
whether,  after  all,  everything  in  the  world  had 
not  come  by  "Nature,"  by  a  simple,  natural  proc- 
ess.   Is  not,  perhaps.  Nature  its  own  author,  its 

i8 


GATHERING  THE  CHILDREN  OF  THE  LIGHT  I9 


own  maker  and  builder?  Do  not  all  things  form 
and  shape  themselves  from  elements  that  were 
always  there  and  that  possess  the  power  of  chang- 
ing into  other  things?  Are  not  the  stars  vital  sub- 
stances which  send  out  seeds  of  life  to  the  earth, 
and  even  emit  these  souls  of  ours  that  shape  for 
themselves  bodies  to  live  in?  If  this  were  so, 
then,  there  might  not  be  any  God.  All  things 
just  came !  This  idea  got  hold  of  George's  thoughts 
there  in  beautiful  "Beavor,"  as  he  slowly  footed 
the  winding  road,  and  all  his  mind  was  clouded 
with  doubts.  There  was  no  mission  in  the  world 
for  him,  if  God  was  not  real.  He  could  not  preach 
about  elements!  All  his  high  hopes  and  his  new 
joy  must  vanish  if  the  universe  was  nothing  but 
natural  matter  with  no  inner  Soul!  He  did  now 
what  he  always  did  when  he  was  in  trouble,  he  sat 
down  in  the  quiet  and  stillness,  and  waited  for  the 
Voice  within  him  to  speak.  He  hushed  his  argu- 
ments, he  stopped  his  " wonderings,"  and  just 
listened,  like  Elijah  when  the  still  small  voice  came 
to  him.  In  a  few  minutes,  a  living  hope  arose 
within  him  and  a  true  voice  said,  'There  is  a 
living  God  who  made  all  things,*  and  Fox  adds, 
"My  cloud  vanished  away,  and  life  rose  over  it 
all;  my  heart  was  glad  and  I  praised  the  living 
God." 

The  other  moment  of  hesitation  was  not  be- 
cause of  doubts  which  he  had,  but  because  the 


20 


THE  STORY  OF  GEORGE  FOX 


whole  creation  seemed  to  open  its  meaning  and 
its  secrets  to  him.  It  suddenly  seemed  as  though 
he  could  see  through  everything  and  understand 
it  all.  "The  creation  was  opened  to  me,"  he  says. 
"All  things  were  new;  and  all  the  creation  gave 
another  smell."  "I  saw  the  nature  and  virtues 
of  things."  It  was  as  though  he  had  passed  up 
through  the  flaming  sword  of  the  Cherubim  and 
had  come  into  paradise  and  was  like  Adam  before 
he  fell,  who  could  talk  face  to  face  with  God  and 
could  see  the  natures  of  all  things  and  give  them 
their  names  and  knew  only  purity  and  peace  and 
joy.  In  this  moment  of  rapture  Fox  wondered 
whether  he  should  not  go  out  and  practice  medi- 
cine to  heal  the  wounds  and  pains  and  ills  of  the 
world,  since  "the  creation  was  opened"  to  him  so 
that  he  could  discover  all  the  healing  virtues  of 
things!  But  it  soon  grew  clear  to  him  that  his 
work  in  the  world  was  not  to  doctor  men's  bodies, 
but  to  help  them  find  God  and  to  cure  their  souls 
and  to  live  pure  lives.  "The  Lord,"  he  says, 
"sent  me  forth  to  preach  His  everlasting  gospel" 
■ — "to  declare  truth."  In  "powerful  and  piercing 
words"  he  began  telling  little  groups  of  people,  who 
had  jjassed  through  experiences  something  like  his 
own,  about  the  living  Christ  who  reveals  His  light 
and  life  and  love  in  the  soul  of  man.  He  opened 
his  work  of  ministry  in  a  very  quiet  way  in  the 
midland  counties  of  England — Leicestershire,  War- 


GATHERING  THE  CHILDREN  OF  THE  LIGHT  21 


wickshire,  Nottinghamshire  and  Derbyshire.  One 
of  his  very  first  followers  and  disciples  was  a  wo- 
man named  Elizabeth  Hooton  who  lived  at  Skegby, 
near  Mansfield,  where  a  small  group  of  persons 
accepted  his  teaching.  Fox  himself  says  that  "  the 
Lord's  power  wrought  mightily  and  gathered  many 
of  them,"  and  he  also  says  that  "  the  Lord's  power 
was  wonderfully  manifested  at  Mansfield-  and 
other  towns  thereabouts."  Here  the  people  who 
gaHiered^^roimd  him,  and  were  separated  from 
the  churches,  came  at  first  to  be  called  "  the  Chil- 
dren of  the  Light,"  though  they  soon  called  them- 
selves "Friends." 

Fox's  preaching  in  these  early  days  was  very 
simple  and  quite  difl^erent  from  that  in  the  Puritan 
churches.  He  asked  people  to  stop  arguing  about 
Christ  and  turn  their  attention  to  the  light  of 
Christ  in  their  own  souls,  to  sit  still  and  listen  and 
to  let  God's  grace  and  power  work  within  them. 
Above  everything  else  he  told  all  his  hearers  that  x 
they  must  get  all  shams  out  of  their  lives.  They 
must  Be^what  they  professed  to  be  and  they  must 
carry  ouj^all  the  truth  which  they  discovered  into 
action  in  daily  life.  They  must  stop  being  in- 
sincere. When  they  said  anything  they  must 
mean  it. 

Fox  himself  gave  up  observing  all  fashions 
and  manners,  customs  and  conventions  which  he 
thought  had  become  hollow,  empty  and  meaning- 


22 


THE   STORY  OF  GEORGE  FOX 


less.  He  resolved  that  he  would  not  do  anything 
for  mere  show.  "When  the  Lord  sent  me  forth 
into  the  world,"  he  wrote  in  his  Journal^  "He 
forbade  me  to  put  off  my  hat  to  any,  high  or  low; 
and  I  was  required  to  say  Thee  and  Thou  to  all 
men  and  women,  without  any  respect  to  rich  or 
poor,  great  or  small."  He  made  a  great  point  of 
treating  everybody  alike,  of  showing  as  much 
respect  to  a  poor  person  that  labored  with  his 
hands  as  to  the  wealthiest  person  who  had  every- 
thing done  for  him.  He  maintained  that  in  the 
sight  of  God  all  were  alike  and  all  were  precious. 
He  wanted  to  spread  in  the  world  a  religion  and  a 
way  of  life  which  would  give  everyone  every- 
where a  full  chance  to  be  the  kind  of  person  God 
in  the  creation  meant  him  to  be.  He  hoped,  too, 
to  change  all  hard  customs,  unfair  laws  and  un- 
just systems  which  kept  men  bound  and  cramped 
and  to  help  bring  in  a  condition  of  things  more 
like  the  Kingdom  of  God  which  Christ  talked 
about. 

"  George  Fox  quickly  found  out  how  difficult  it 
is  to  change  the  world  and  how  much  suffering  it 
costs  to  live  differently  and  to  act  differently  from 
the  way  people  in  general  live  and  act.  He  never 
stopped  to  consider  the  easy  way.  He  challenged 
what  seemed  to  him  wrong  regardless  of  what 
might  happen.  He  got  his  first  taste  of  the  kind 
of  suffering  that  was  to  come  to  him  all  the  rest 


GATHERING  THE  CHILDREN  OF  THE  LIGHT  23 


of  his  life  in  the  town  of  Nottingham,  one  Sunday 
morning  in  1649.  walking  along  the  high 

road,  when  from  a  hill-top  he  saw  the  spire  of 
St.  Mary's  church.  He  could  not  bear  the  sight 
of  church-spires.  They  seemed  to  him  unneces- 
sary, useless  and  made  for  show.  He  had  formed  a 
great  dislike  of  the  Church  as  it  was  in  his  day,  of 
the  preaching  which  people  had  to  listen  to  in 
the  churches,  and  especially  of  the  ministers  who 
were,  he  thought,  hollow  and  empty.  When  he 
saw  a  spire  it  aroused  all  his  deep  feelings  of  dis- 
like. The  church-spire  seemed  to  him  to  be  the 
focus  of  the  entire  system  which  he  disapproved. 
He  had  not  yet  quite  learned  to  control  himself  and 
to  see  there  was  something  true  even  in  things 
which  he  disliked.  As  he  caught  sight  of  this 
Nottingham  spire  something  powerfully  moved 
him  to  go  and  "cry  out  against"  what  was  going 
on  in  that  church.  When  he  got  there  he  thought 
that  the  minister  looked  dull  and  stupid  "like  a 
lump  of  earth."  So  he  himself  began  to  tell  the 
people  in  the  church  that  God  was  ready  to  speak 
in  their  own  souls;  that  if  they  would  listen  to  Him 
and  obey  His  voice  the  full  day  of  life  and  glory 
would  dawn  in  their  own  hearts  and  the  day-star 
would  arise  in  their  souls  and  they  would  be  able  to 
understand  God's  living  Word  and  serve  Him 
without  the  help  of  priest  and  without  long  and 
tedious  sermons. 


24 


THE  STORY  OF  GEORGE  FOX 


Quite  naturally  the  minister  did  not  like  the 
interruption  of  his  service,  though  the  people  who 
heard  the  stranger's  words  were  amazed  and  could 
not  for  a  long  time  "get  them  out  of  their  ears." 
But  while  Fox  was  still  speaking,  some  officers 
came  up  behind  and  seized  him  and  put  him  in  a 
nasty,  foul-smelling  prison.  The  head  sheriff, 
named  John  Reckless,  who  had  charge  of  him,  was 
convinced  of  the  truth  which  Fox  preached  about 
God  and  he  and  his  entire  family  were  changed 
and  became  "Children  of  the  Light,"  and  many 
others  became  "tender"  when  they  felt  the  power 
of  God  break  forth  through  his  life  and  his  words. 
A  man  whose  soul  had  been  touched  came  and 
offered  to  take  George  Fox's  place  in  the  prison 
and  to  suffer  instead  of  him,  if  the  judges  would 
let  Fox  go.  He  was  soon  released  from  his  first 
imprisonment  without  any  substitute  and  allowed 
to  go  on  his  way  in  freedom. 

This  experience  in  Nottingham  had  not  made 
him  any  more  careful  or  cautious.  He  was  just 
as  ready  as  before  to  cry  out  against  things  which 
he  believed  to  be  wrong  or  a  sham.  Coming  into 
Mansfield-Woodhouse,  where  he  calmed  "a  dis- 
tracted woman"  who  was  "mended  by  the  Lord's 
power"  and  became  one  of  the  "Children  of  the 
Light,"  Fox  was  "moved  to  go  to  the  steeple- 
house,"  as  he  always  called  the  church  building, 
and  "declare  truth  there."   The  people  in  this 


GATHERING  THE  CHILDREN  OF  THE  LIGHT  25 


church  did  not  wait  for  the  officers.  In  Fox's  own 
account  of  the  affair,  he  says:  "The  people  fell 
upon  me  in  great  rage,  struck  me  down  and  al- 
most stifled  and  smothered  me;  and  I  was  cruelly 
beaten  and  bruised  by  them  with  their  hands. 
Bibles  and  sticks.  Then  they  haled  me  out,  though 
I  was  hardly  able  to  stand,  and  put  me  into  the 
stocks;  and  they  brought  dog- whips  and  horse- 
whips, threatening  to  whip  me."  Finally,  he  says, 
"the  rude  people  stoned  me  out  of  the  town  for 
preaching  the  word  of  life  to  them,"  "but  the 
Lord's  power  soon  healed  me  again.  That  day 
some  people  were  convinced  of  the  Lord's  truth 
and  turned  to  His  teaching." 

At  every  town  where  he  came  in  his  travels 
some  people  were  "convinced"  and  the  more  he 
was  attacked  and  beaten  the  more  people  believed 
in  his  truth.  In  Market-Bosworth  he  was  stoned 
out  of  the  town,  but  some  people  were  "loving" 
and  others  were  "confirmed."  An  incident  oc- 
curred at  Twy-Cross  which  shows  the  heroic  stuff 
and  fiber  of  Fox's  spirit.  While  he  was  visiting  "  a 
great  man  of  the  town,"  who  was  lying  dangerously 
ill  and  needed  spiritual  help,  a  serving-man  in  the 
house  came  running  out  of  a  room  with  a  naked 
rapier  in  his  hand  and,  in  a  wild,  mad  way,  threat- 
ened to  thrust  it  into  Fox's  side.  George  says  in 
his  Journal:  "I  looked  steadfastly  on  him  and 
said,  'Alack  for  thee,  poor  creature!  what  wilt 


26 


THE  STORY  OF  GEORGE  FOX 


thou  do  with  thy  carnal  weapon;  it  is  no  more  to 
me  than  a  straw.'" 

At  length  in  his  journeyings  he  came  to  Derby 
where  he  was  to  spend  a  whole  year  in  prison  for 
"declaring  truth."  It  all  came  from  his  bold  and 
unrestrained  method  of  "crying  out  against"  the 
things  which  "struck  at  his  life."  He  went  to 
the  Derby  "steeple-house"  on  "a  great  lecture 
day,"  when  distinguished  vistors  were  preaching 
there,  and  after  they  had  finished,  Fox  rose  and 
gave  them  his  message,  which  he  believed  was  from 
the  Lord.  They  at  once  arrested  him  and  brought 
him  before  the  magistrates,  where  he  spoke  with 
unusual  boldness  of  the  living  Christ  and  of  the 
triumphant  life  when  Christ  lives  in  an  obedient 
man.  It  seemed  to  the  magistrates  too  bold. 
They  called  it  "blasphemy,"  against  which  there 
was  a  law,  and  they  committed  George  Fox  to  the 
Derby  jail  for  six  months. 

While  he  was  in  the  jail  Fox  had  many  visitors 
who  came  to  ask  him  for  help,  or  to  discuss  reli- 
gious questions  with  him.  He  wrote  a  great  many 
papers  and  letters,  explaining  to  the  world  his 
teachings  and  his  practices  and  his  desire  for  a 
better  world.  The  keeper  of  the  jail,  who  at  first 
was  very  hard  against  him,  became  completely 
changed  and  very  "tender."  One  evening  George 
overheard  the  jailer  say  to  his  wife:  "Wife,  I 
have  seen  the  day  of  judgment,  and  I  saw  George 


GATHERING  THE  CHILDREN  OF  THE  LIGHT  T] 


there,  and  I  was  afraid  of  him,  because  I  had  done 
him  so  much  wrong,  and  spoken  so  much  against 
him  to  the  ministers  and  professors,  and  to  the 
justices  and  in  taverns  and  ale-houses."  A  Httle 
later  he  came  into  Fox's  room  and  said  to  him: 
"I  have  been  as  a  Hon  against  you;  but  now  I 
come  hke  a  lamb,  and  like  the  jailer  that  came 
to  Paul  and  Silas  trembling."  He  asked  if  he 
might  come  and  live  in  the  room  with  Fox,  and 
so  it  was  arranged  for  the  strange  prisoner  and 
his  jailer  to  live  together  in  the  jail! 

The  judges,  too,  were  much  impressed  with  the 
character  and  spirit  of  the  prisoner.  They  tried 
to  contrive  some  plan  to  set  him  free  and  to  get 
him  out  of  the  jail,  though  they  did  not  like  to  say 
that  they  were  sorry  for  having  put  him  in.  They 
told  him  that  he  might  have  liberty  to  walk  a 
mile  in  any  direction  he  pleased,  but  George  de- 
clined to  take  any  walks  until  they  had  measured 
off  an  exact  mile.  When  he  did  walk  out  on  his 
mile  trips,  he  went  into  the  streets  and  market  of 
Derby  and  "warned  the  people  to  repent  of 
wickedness." 

It  was  here  in  Derby  that  the  "Children  of  the 
Light"  were  first  called  "Quakers."  One  day  in 
1650  when  George  Fox  was  in  the  Court  and  Justice 
Bennett,  a  distinguished  judge,  was  questioning 
him,  Fox  declared  that  the  time  had  come  for  men 
to  quake  and  tremble  before  the  Lord,  and  the 


28 


THE   STORY  OF  GEORGE  FOX 


Judge  used  words  something  like  this,  "So  you 
are  'quakers'  are  you?"  and  the  name  stuck  and 
soon  came  into  general  use. 

When  the  six  months  of  the  sentence  were 
nearly  expired  some  army  commissioners  came  to 
the  jail  and  tried  to  get  George  Fox  to  join  the 
army  of  the  Commonwealth  and  they  promised 
to  make  him  a  captain.  He  told  the  commissioners 
that  he  was  against  all  wars  and  could  not  fight 
with  arms  against  anybody.  He  said  that  he  was 
living  "in  the  virtue  of  that  life  and  power  that 
takes  away  the  occasion  for  all  wars."  What  he 
said  to  the  commissioners  so  offended  them  that 
their  "rage  got  up,"  and  they  ordered  the  jailer 
to  put  him  into  the  "dungeon  among  the  rogues 
and  felons."  "So  I  was  had  away,"  the  Journal 
says,  "and  put  into  a  lousy,  stinking  place,  with- 
out any  bed,  amongst  thirty  felons,  where  I  was 
kept  almost  half  a  year." 

He  was  deeply  affected  by  the  evil  condition 
of  the  prisoners  in  the  dungeon  and  he  wrote 
letters  to  the  justices,  showing  them  how  hurtful 
it  was  to  keep  men  in  jails  where  they  learned 
wickedness  and  became  brutalized  and  much  worse 
than  they  were  before.  He  pleaded  for  a  change 
in  the  laws  which  put  men  to  death  for  small 
crimes  and  petty  offenses.  His  tender  heart  was 
especially  touched  by  the  case  of  one  poor  woman 
in  the  jail  who  was  to  be  executed  for  stealing. 


GATHERING  THE  CHILDREN  OF  THE  LIGHT  29 


She  was  finally  saved  from  the  gallows  and  "be- 
came convinced  of  God's  everlasting  truth" — 
that  is,  she  became  one  of  "the  Children  of  the 
Light." 

One  day  a  "conjuror"  who  was  in  the  jail 
frightened  everybody,  even  the  jailer  himself,  by 
threatening  to  raise  the  Devil  and  break  down  the 
house.  It  was  an  age  when  almost  everybody 
believed  in  the  power  of  witchcraft.  Fox  was  not 
so  easily  scared.  He  says:  "I  was  moved  of  the 
Lord  to  go  in  His  power  and  rebuke  him  and  say 
unto  him:  'Come  let  us  see  what  thou  canst  do; 
do  thy  worst!'  I  told  him  the  Devil  was  raised 
high  enough  in  him  already,  but  the  power  of 
God  chained  him  down:  so  he  slunk  away  from 
me. 

George's  relatives  had  tried  in  vain  to  get  him 
out  of  the  jail,  for  he  would  not  budge  until  the 
magistrates  who  put  him  in  were  ready  of  their 
own  accord  to  come  and  take  him  out.  That  is 
what  they  finally  decided  to  do.  In  the  winter 
of  1651,  after  having  passed  six  months  in  the 
common  jail  and  six  more  months  in  the  felon's 
dungeon,  the  magistrates  opened  his  prison  door 
and  set  him  at  liberty. 


CHAPTER  IV 


A  GREAT  PEOPLE  TO   BE  GATHERED 

It  will  already  have  been  discovered  that  George 
Fox  was  an  unusual  person.  He  was,  as  William 
Penn  once  said,  "an  original"  and  "no  man's 
copy."  It  was  impossible  to  foretell  what  he 
would  do,  for  he  did  not  take  to  the  old  ruts  of 
custom  or  the  formed  grooves  of  habit.  He  cut 
out  an  unused  path  and  marked  a  new  course. 
And,  in  doing  it,  he  never  stopped  to  count  the 
cost  or  to  consider  the  abuse  it  might  bring.  He 
went  forward  and  acted.  Sometimes  he  made 
mistakes  and  took  a  false  start  and  had  to  learn 
through  bitter  experience  where  the  right  road 
really  was,  but  he  was  always  trying  to  follow  a 
divine  light,  and  everybody  could  be  sure  that  he 
was  sincere,  honest  and  brave. 

He  was  a  striking,  impressive  man  to  look  at. 
There  was  a  certain  majesty  about  his  presence, 
his  friend  William  Penn  tells  us.  His  eyes  pos- 
sessed an  extraordinary  power  and  seemed  to 
look  right  through  a  person.  "Take  thy  eyes  off 
me;  they  pierce  me!"  one  man  cried  out  as  Fox 
steadily  gazed  at  him.  Ministers  were  often 
afraid  to  face  him.    When  Francis  Howgill  saw 

30 


A  GREAT  PEOPLE  TO  BE  GATHERED 


31 


Fox  look  in  on  him  through  the  door  of  Firbank 
Chapel  as  Howgill  was  trying  to  preach,  he  was 
so  embarrassed  that,  he  says,  any  one  could  have 
killed  him  with  a  crab  apple!  Again^  and  again 
fierce_oppQnents  wilted  down  in  debate  when  tRey 
saw  this  calm,  seLene  man  in  front  ofjthem-  The 
Cambridge  students  endeavored  to  pull  him  off 
his  horse  when  Fox  came  to  their  University  town 
with  his  message,  but  they  could  not  unhorse 
him.  "I  kept  on  my  horse's  back,"  he  says, 
"and  rid  through  them  in  the  Lord's  power.  Oh! 
said  they,  he  shines:  he  glisters."  After  he  had 
spoken  in  Beverley  Minster,  a  great  lady  of  Bev- 
erley told  Justice  Hotham  of  that  town  that 
"an  Angel  or  Spirit  came  into  the  church  at  Bev- 
erley and  spoke  the  wonderful  things  of  God,  to 
the  astonishment  of  all  that  were  there:  and  when 
it  had  done,  //  passed  away,  and  they  did  not  know 
whence  //  came  or  whither  it  went;  but  it  aston- 
ished all,  priests,  professors  and  magistrates." 

He  wore  leather  breeches  and  a  leather  doublet,  ^ 
not  in  order  to  be  odd  and  queer,  but  because 
these  were  the  best  and  most  durable  clothes  for 
one  who  traveled  in  all  weathers  and  had  to  sleep 
often  under  hedges  and  haystacks  and  needed 
garments  that  were  both  stout  and  warm.  His 
clothes  were  fastened  with  "alchemy  buttons," 
that  is,  buttons  made  of  composition  metal,  and 
he  was  very  particular  to  have  good,  clean  linen. 


THE  STORY  OF  GEORGE  FOX 


His  hair  was  thick  and  long,  with  a  strong  tend- 
ency to  curl  at  the  ends.  He  wore  his  hat  under 
all  circumstances.  He  could  endure  fatigue,  labor, 
travel,  beatings,  lack  of  food,  cold,  wet,  and  bar- 
baric prisons.  His  friends  loved  him,  as  William 
Penn  says,  "with  an  unfeigned  and  unfading  love." 
A  Yorkshire  "priest"  explained  why  people  fol- 
lowed the  new  preacher  and  seemed  so  attached 
to  him  by  inventing  the  story  that  Fox  carried 
magic  bottles  with  him  and  made  people  drink 
out  of  them,  and  that  was  the  reason  why  he  had 
so  many  followers  and  friends! 

Soon  after  he  was  out  of  Derby  prison  he  wid- 
ened out  his  field  of  labor  and  entered  the  great 
county  of  Yorkshire  where  he  found  some  of  the 
most  intimate  friends  of  his  life  and  some  of  the 
ablest  helpers  in  his  work.  On  the  first  arrival  in 
Yorkshire  he  did  not  meet  with  much  kindness 
nor  with  any  success.  The  first  inn  at  which  he 
stayed  had  no  welcome  for  the  "man  in  leather 
breeches."  "I  bid  the  woman  of  the  house," 
he  says  in  the  Journal^  "if  she  had  any  meat,  to 
bring  me  some;  but  because  I  said  Thee  and  Thou 
to  her  she  looked  strangely  on  me.  Then  I  asked 
her  if  she  had  any  milk;  and  she  said,  '  No.'  I  was 
sensible  she  spoke  falsely,  and  being  willing  to 
try  her  further,  I  asked  her  if  she  had  any  cream; 
she  denied  that  she  had  any.  Now  there  stood  a 
churn  in  the  room,  and  a  little  boy  playing  about 


A  GREAT  PEOPLE  TO  BE  GATHERED 


33 


it  put  his  hands  into  it  and  pulled  it  down,  and 
threw  all  the  cream  on  the  floor  before  my  eyes. 
Thus  was  the  woman  manifested  to  be  a  liar.  She 
was  amazed  and  blessed  herself,  and  taking  up  the 
child  whipped  it  sorely;  but  I  reproved  her  for  her 
lying  and  deceit.  After  the  Lord  had  thus  dis- 
covered her  deceit  and  perverseness,  I  walked  out 
of  the  house,  and  went  away  until  I  came  to  a 
stack  of  hay  and  lay  in  the  haystack  that  night 
in  rain  and  snow  [of  course  without  any  supper] 

it  being  three  days  before  the  time  called  Christ- 

  >» 

mas. 

The  next  day  he  tried  to  give  his  message  in  the 
great  Minster  at  York  where  the  people  did  not 
take  him  for  an  angel,  as  the  great  lady  had  done 
in  Beverley.  As  soon  as  the  words  of  his  brief  and 
practical  message  were  out  of  his  mouth,  he  says, 
"they  hurried  me  out  and  threw  me  down  the 
steps,  but  I  got  up  again  without  hurt  and  went 
to  my  lodgings." 

The  first  important  successes  which  came  to 
him  in  Yorkshire  were  in  the  country  about  Don- 
caster  which  is  not  far  from  Scrooby,  where  the 
"Pilgrim  Fathers,"  with  their  great  minister, 
John  Robinson,  had  lived  before  they  went  to 
Holland  and  later  to  Massachusetts.  In  this 
region  there  were  many  persons  who  were  seeking 
for  fresh  light,  which  Robinson  had  said  was  about 
to  "break  forth,"  and  who  were  prepared  in  ad- 


34 


THE   STORY  OF  GEORGE  FOX 


vance  for  the  new  preacher.  They  were  all  ready 
to  become  "Children  of  the  Light"  as  soon  as  Fox 
appeared.  The  most  important  members  of  this 
group  were  Richard  Farnsworth  who  became  one 
of  the  leading  Quakers;  Thomas  Aldam  and  his 
wife  Mary;  John  and  Thomas  Killam  and  their 
wives  Margaret  and  Joan.  A  little  later  two  more 
men  joined  him  who  were  to  be  among  the  most 
famous  of  all  his  fellow-workers,  and  one  of  them, 
by  his  sad  mistakes,  was  to  bring  great  trouble 
upon  the  Quaker  movement.  They  were  William 
Dewsbury  and  James  Nayler,  both  of  them  former 
soldiers  in  the  armies  of  the  Civil  War.  Dews- 
bury  was  one  of  "the  sweetest  and  wisest"  of  all 
the  early  Friends,  who  knew  how  to  turn  his 
prisons  into  palaces  and  the  bolts  and  bars  of  his 
dungeon  into  jewels.  Nayler  was  one  of  the  ablest 
and  most  moving  of  all  the  Quaker  preachers, 
and  once  his  preaching  gave  one  of  Cromwell's 
officers  more  terror  than  did  the  battle  of  Dunbar. 
He  reached  great  heights,  he  had  a  terrible  fall  and 
finally  he  finished  his  life  with  a  marvelous  re- 
pentance. 

At  Warmsworth,  on  this  early  Yorkshire  visit. 
Fox  says,  "the  people  ran  upon  me  and  knocked 
me  sorely  with  their  staves,  threw  clods  and  stones 
at  me  and  abused  me  much;  the  priest  also,  being 
in  a  great  rage,  laid  violent  hands  on  me  himself. 
But  I  warned  them  and  him  of  the  terrible  day  of 


A  GREAT  PEOPLE  TO  BE  GATHERED 


35 


the  Lord,  and  exhorted  them  to  repent  and  turn 
to  Christ.  Being  filled  with  the  Lord's  refreshing 
power,  I  was  not  sensible  of  much  hurt  I  had  re- 
ceived by  their  blows."  At  Tickhill  he  was  treated 
still  worse.  As  soon  as  he  began  to  speak  in  the 
"steeple-house"  the  people  fell  upon  him  fiercely. 
The  'Journal  says:  "The  clerk  took  up  his  Bible, 
as  I  was  speaking  and  struck  me  on  the  face  with 
it,  so  that  it  gushed  out  with  blood,  and  I  bled 
exceedingly  in  the  steeple-house.  Then  the  people 
cried,  'Let  us  have  him  out  of  the  Church,'  and 
when  they  had  got  me  out,  they  beat  me  exceed- 
ingly and  threw  me  down,  and  over  a  hedge;  and 
afterwards  they  dragged  me  through  a  house  into 
the  street,  stoning  and  beating  me  as  they  drew 
me  along,  so  that  I  was  besmeared  all  over  with 
blood  and  dirt."  In  the  struggle  he  lost  his  pre- 
cious hat,  which  he  wore  on  all  occasions  and  took 
off  in  the  presence  of  nobody  and  in  no  building, 
and  he  had  to  walk  eight  miles  to  Balby  without 
any  hat! 

In  a  town  near  Pickering,  where  there  was  more 
preaching  than  practice  in  the  church,  and  where 
many  people  came  together  in  large  numbers  to 
hear  the  preacher  in  leather  breeches.  Fox  sat 
for  some  hours  in  absolute  silence  on  a  haystack, 
with  the  people  gathered  around  him  waiting  for 
him  to  speak.  He  felt  moved  "to  famish  them 
from  words."   They  kept  asking  him  when  he  was 


36 


THE  STORY  OF  GEORGE  FOX 


going  to  begin.  He  quietly  said  each  time  they 
asked,  "Wait."  "At  last,"  he  says,  "I  was  moved 
of  the  Lord  to  speak;  and  they  were  struck  by  the 
Lord's  power;  the  word  of  life  reached  to  them, 
and  there  was  a  general  convincement  amongst 
them." 

Thus  he  went  on  through  the  towns  of  York- 
shire, sleeping  almost  entirely  out  of  doors,  so 
that  a  rumor  got  afloat  that  he  never  used  a  bed; 
meeting  often  furious  persecution,  and,  on  the 
other  hand,  gaining  bands  of  followers  so  devoted 
that  they  seemed  to  his  enemies  under  the  spell 
of  some  magic  charm.  In  spite  of  the  bitter  op- 
position he  was  steadily  gaining  ground  and  the 
truth  was  spreading.  He  says  that  the  Lord  told 
him,  in  these  early  Yorkshire  days,  that  "if  but 
one  man  or  woman  were  raised  up  by  God's  power, 
to  stand  and  live  in  the  same  spirit  that  the 
prophets,  and  apostles  were  in,  who  gave  forth 
the  Scriptures,  that  man  or  woman  should  shake 
all  the  country  in  their  profession  for  ten  miles 
around!"  which  means,  I  suppose,  that  a  person 
who  has  real,  firsthand  religious  life  and  power 
will  make  everybody  in  a  ten-mile  radius  see  how 
different  that  is  from  a  religion  of  mere  empty  pro- 
fession. 

At  length  in  his  travels,  with  Richard  Farns- 
worth  as  his  companion,  George  Fox  came  to 
Pendle-Hill,  just  across  the  border  of  Yorkshire, 


A  GREAT  PEOPLE  TO  BE  GATHERED  37 


in  the  edge  of  Lancashire.  He  calls  it  "a  very- 
great  hill" — "very  steep  and  high,"  with  a  wide 
sweep  of  view,  all  the  way  to  "the  sea  bordering 
upon  Lancashire."  The  Lord  moved  him,  he 
says,  to  climb  this  Pendle-Hill.  And  on  the  lonely 
top  of  it,  with  the  great  stretch  of  the  beautiful 
world  below  him,  he  had  an  inspiration  and  a 
vision:  "From  the  top  of  the  hill,  the  Lord  let 
me  see  in  what  places  He  had  a  great  people  to  be 
gathered." 

He  had  been  proclaiming  his  message  in  the 
counties  of  England  now  for  about  four  years, 
and  though  he  had  seen  some  striking  results  from 
his  labors,  the  successes  were  on  the  whole  slender 
and  meager.  There  was  little  sign  yet  that  a  new 
religious  reformation  was  under  way  or  that  a 
powerful  religious  Society  was  to  be  born  out  of 
the  movement  of  which  Fox  was  the  leader.  There 
were  many  little  temporary  sects  forming  in  Eng- 
land at  this  time  and  people  supposed  that  "the 
Children  of  the  Light"  was  to  be  just  one  more  of 
them.  They  believed  that  it  would  soon  go  by 
and  vanish  away.  And  probably  it  would  have 
done  so  if  Fox,  there  in  the  region  around  Pendle- 
,Hill,  had  not  discovered  "a  great  people  to  be 
gathered."  This  was  a  turning  point  in  his  life 
and  this  was  the  great  epoch  in  his  ministry.  He 
had  hardly  eaten  anything  or  drunk  anything  for 
several  days.    At  a  spring  on  the  side  of  Pendle- 


38 


THE  STORY  OF  GEORGE  FOX 


Hill  he  now  refreshed  himself.  That  night  he  came 
to  an  inn  and  we  hope  that,  after  his  long  fast, 
he  had  a  good  supper.  But,  whether  he  had  supper 
or  not,  at  the  inn  he  had  a  new  vision,  or,  at  least, 
a  continuation  of  the  vision  which  he  had  on 
Pendle-Hill.  "Here,"  he  says,  "the  Lord  opened 
unto  me,  and  let  me  see  a  great  people  in  white 
raiment  by  a  river  side,  coming  to  the  Lord;  and 
the  place  I  saw  them  in  was  about  Wensleydale 
and  Sedbergh."  The  river  of  his  vision,  where  the 
people  in  white  raiment  were  to  be  gathered,  was 
the  river  Rawthey,  which  flows  through  the  dales 
near  Sedbergh,  or  Brigflatts.  In  this  district 
there  were  large  communities  of  people  called 
"Seekers."  They  had  separated  from  the  Church, 
somewhat  as  the  "Pilgrim  Fathers"  at  Scrooby 
did,  and  they  had  formed  a  new  kind  of  religious 
meeting.  It  seemed  to  them  that  none  of  the 
churches  in  the  world  were  like  the  Church  of 
Christ  in  the  days  of  the  apostles,  as  it  is  described 
in  the  New  Testament,  and  these  "Seekers" 
wanted  to  bring  back  and  restore  that  apostolic 
Church  in  its  purity.  They  thought,  however, 
that  this  could  not  be  done  until  some  new  prophet 
or  apostle  should  be  sent  by  Christ,  commissioned 
to  set  up  the  new  Church  and  to  bring  in  the  new 
era.  While  they  were  waiting  for  the  prophet  of 
the  Lord  to  come,  they  were  waiters^  or  seekers 
for  the  Light.    They  often  held  their  meetings 


A  GREAT  PEOPLE  TO  BE  GATHERED 


39 


in  silence  for  they  did  not  want  to  speak  unless  they 
were  sure  God  Himself  gave  them  something  to 
say.  They  had  ministers  in  their  communities 
but  they  did  not  think  that  any  minister  who  had 
yet  appeared  had  full  authority  and  power  as  the 
apostles  had.  They  were  "waiting"  in  hope  for 
an  apostolic  man  to  come  to  them.  They  were  all 
ready  to  believe  in  him  and  to  receive  him  as  soon 
as  they  were  convinced  that  he  had  come.  George 
Fox,  when  he  appeared  among  them,  seemed  to 
them  to  be  the  man  they  were  waiting  for,  and 
they  were  quickly  "gathered  in,"  as  we  shall  see. 


CHAPTER  V 


THE  NEW  GROUP  OF  FRIENDS  IN  THE  NORTH 

As  we  have  already  seen,  "the  people  in  white 
raiment" — which  is  only  another  way  of  saying 
the  people  who  were  called  to  be  "saints" — were 
the  groups  of  "seekers"  more  or  less  gathered  in 
little  communities,  in  the  fringe  of  border  towns 
where  the  three  counties  of  Yorkshire,  Lancashire 
and  Westmoreland  join.  Sedbergh  was  the  im- 
portant center  in  Yorkshire;  Yealand  and  Kellet 
in  Lancashire;  Kendal,  Underbarrow  and  Gray- 
rigg  in  Westmoreland,  while  Firbank  chapel  at 
Preston-Patrick,  not  far  from  Kendal,  was  their 
central  meeting  place  for  their  General  Meeting, 
held  once  a  month.  As  soon  as  they  heard  Fox 
speak  his  message,  they  felt  that  he  "spoke  with 
authority"  and  was  a  different  type  of  preacher 
from  any  they  had  ever  heard. 

The  first  great  occasion  when  the  "Seekers"  in 
a  body  heard  Fox  speak  was  the  Sunday  afternoon 
following  his  "vision"  on  Pendle-Hill.  It  was  the 
time  of  their  General  Monthly  Meeting  at  Preston- 
Patrick.  Francis  Howgill  and  John  Audland,  two 
of  their  foremost  men,  had  spoken  in  Firbank 
chapel  in  the  morning  and  Fox  had  looked  in  at 

40 


THE  NEW  GROUP  OF  FRIENDS  IN  THE  NORTH  4I 


the  door  while  Howgill  was  speaking,  but  he  did 
not  go  into  the  chapel.  He  waited  outside  and 
at  the  close  of  the  morning  meeting  he  asked  the 
throng  of  people  to  come  to  an  afternoon  meeting 
on  the  hillside.  A  mass  of  rock  rises  out  of  the 
fell  which  makes  a  natural  pulpit,  with  a  broad 
area  in  front  admirably  suited  for  a  large  group 
of  listeners.  Here  in  the  afternoon  a  thousand 
people  gathered  around  the  rock  on  which  Fox 
sat.  At  first  there  was  a  period  of  deep,  intense 
silence  and  then  the  strange,  new,  prophet-like 
preacher  rose  and  spoke  for  three  hours!  He  told 
them  in  powerful,  piercing  words  how  different  the 
Church  in  the  apostles'  days  was  from  the  Church 
in  their  time  and  he  declared  that  Christ  wanted 
to  restore  this  true,  living,  powerful,  spiritual 
Church.  He  announced,  as  he  always  did,  that 
Christ  Himself  was  still  living,  though  invisible, 
and  would  be  the  Teacher  of  all  who  were  willing 
and  eager  to  hear  His  voice.  The  living  Christ 
would  feed  them  and  guide  them  and  reveal  the 
truth  to  them  and  make  their  bodies  real  Temples 
of  God.  He  made  them  see  that  they  need  no 
longer  be  "waiters"  and  "seekers,"  for  the  time 
had  fully  come  when  they  could  be  finders  and 
possessors.  The  Light  of  Christ,  he  told  them, 
reaches  every  soul  and  the  real  presence  of  Christ 
spreads  over  every  human  heart.  As  they  listened, 
with  rapt  faces,  they  felt  the  demonstration  and 


42 


THE  STORY  OF  GEORGE  FOX 


power  of  his  message.  It  reached  their  hearts  and 
they  were  convinced  of  its  truth.  It  seemed  clear 
that  the  person  possessed  of  true  apostoHc  power, 
for  whom  they  had  been  waiting,  was  now  among 
them,  speaking  to  them.  Many  hundreds  were 
convinced  and  all  those  who  had  been  "teachers" 
in  the  Seekers'  communities  accepted  the  message 
of  Fox  and  joined  themselves  to  his  movement. 
Many  more  meetings  were  held  among  the  Seekers 
and  many  families  were  visited,  until  practically 
all  who  had  formed  the  groups  of  Seekers  now 
became  "Children  of  the  Light"  and  helped  to 
form  what  now  came  to  be  called  the  Society  of 
Friends. 

From  these  new  bands  came  the  most  important 
of  the  early  Quaker  preachers  and  leaders.  We 
have  already  met  Francis  Howgill  and  John  Aud- 
land  who  were  "teachers"  in  the  meeting  at  Fir- 
bank  chapel.  Howgill  was  a  little  older  and 
Audland  a  little  younger  than  Fox.  They  soon 
caught  the  same  spirit  and  became  powerful 
bearers  of  the  message  about  the  living  Christ  in 
man's  soul.  No  less  remarkable  were  two  other 
publishers  of  the  Quaker  truth  who  came  to  help 
Fox  at  this  time — Edward  Burrough  and  John 
Camm.  Burrough  was  only  nineteen  and  his  life- 
work  was  to  be  brief,  but  his  whole  strength  was 
"bended  after  God,"  and  prisons  could  not  daunt 
him  nor  death  affright  him.    He  was  a  great  in- 


THE  NEW  GROUP  OF  FRIENDS  IN  THE  NORTH  43 


strument  in  the  spreading  of  the  Quaker  message. 
Camm  was  already  fifty  and  was  one  of  the  few 
Quaker  messengers  of  this  early  time  who  were  not 
in  the  first  flush  of  youth  and  vigor.  His  soul 
had  "hungered  and  thirsted  for  truth,"  and  now 
that  he  felt  sure  of  having  found  it,  he  devoted 
himself  through  suffering  and  sacrifice,  to  the 
spreading  of  it.  There  were  many  besides  these 
four  full-statured  preachers  who  possessed  large 
gifts  and  who  became  powerful  ministers  with  Fox 
in  the  publishing  of  the  Quaker  teaching  of  the 
Light.  The  most  noted  of  them  were  Richard 
Hubberthorne,  Miles  Halhead,  Miles  Hubbersty, 
Robert  Widders,  Gervase  Benson,  Thomas  Tay- 
lor, Ann  Camm,  Dorothy  Waugh  and  Elizabeth 
Fletcher.  They  were  devoted  to  their  new  leader, 
George  Fox;  they  were,  like  him,  ready  to  leave 
all,  houses  and  lands,  father  and  mother,  friends 
and  neighbors,  to  go  out  into  "the  hard  and  briery 
world"  with  their  gospel  of  joy,  to  suffer  or  to  die 
for  their  truth,  and  like  "the  little  brothers"  who 
gathered  around  St  Francis  of  Assisi,  they  felt 
that  through  their  new  leader,  they  had  found 
Christ  and  His  joy.  William  Caton,  who  joined 
the  band  from  the  Swarthmore  group,  of  which 
we  shall  soon  hear,  expressed  the  joy  and  thrill 
which  they  all  felt.  He  says:  "Oh,  the  love  which 
in  that  day  abounded  in  us,  .  .  .  and  oh,  the 
freshness  of  the  power  of  the  Lord  God  which  was 


44 


THE  STORY  OF  GEORGE  FOX 


amongst  us,  and  the  zeal  for  God  and  His  truth, 
the  comfort  and  refreshment  which  we  had  from 
His  presence,  the  nearness  and  dearness  that  was 
amongst  us  one  towards  another/'  In  a  very 
short  time  there  were  no  less  than  sixty  persons 
who,  thrilled  with  new  life  and  power,  were  going 
about,  as  George  Fox  was  doing,  to  preach  and 
proclaim  the  Light  and  Life  and  Love  of  God 
revealed  to  men. 

But  there  was  a  still  more  important  person  in 
this  beautiful  Lake  District  of  Westmoreland  who 
was  waiting  unconsciously,  like  the  Seekers,  for 
Fox's  vital  message.  This  was  Margaret  Fell  of 
Swarthmore  Hall  who  was  one  day  to  become 
Margaret  Fox.  Her  maiden  name  was  Askew  and 
she  came  of  the  wealthy  family  at  Marsh  Grange 
in  the  Furness  District.  Some  historians  have 
thought  that  she  was  a  descendant  of  the  noble 
martyr,  Anne  Askew,  but  that  is  not  likely.  She 
must  live  by  her  own  fame  and  not  by  that  of  a 
martyred  ancestor.  In  1658,  when  Margaret  was 
about  eighteen,  she  had  married  Thomas  Fell,  the 
proprietor  of  Swarthmore  Hall,  a  fine  old  Eliza- 
bethan manor  house,  near  the  town  of  Ulverston. 
He  was  sixteen  years  older  than  his  lovely  wife, 
and  before  the  arrival  of  Fox  he  had  become  one 
of  the  leading  men  in  the  northern  counties  of 
England.  He  had  been  a  member  of  the  Long 
Parliament,  and  he  was  now  a  prominent  judge  and 


THE  NEW  GROUP  OF  FRIENDS  IN  THE  NORTH  45 


the  holder  of  other  honorable  and  distinguished 
positions.  His  work  as  judge  took  him  often  away 
from  home  and  his  capable  wife  had  become  effi- 
cient in  the  management  of  the  affairs  of  the  Hall 
and  of  the  large  estate.  Nine  children,  all  but 
one  of  whom  were  still  living,  seven  of  them  daugh- 
ters, had  been  born  in  Swarthmore  Hall  during 
the  happy  years  of  their  married  life. 

Margaret  Fell  was  a  devoutly  religious  woman. 
She  was  a  diligent  attender  of  the  Ulverston  church, 
where  "priest  Lampitt"  ministered,  but  she  was 
not  wholly  satisfied  with  the  religion  of  the 
churches  and  longed  for  a  more  real  and  intimate 
experience  of  God.  She  felt  and  thought  in  the 
secret  of  her  heart  much  as  "the  people  in  white 
raiment"  did,  though  she  had  never  joined  the 
Seeker  communities.  The  Hall  was  always  hos- 
pitably open  to  religious  people  and  the  mistress 
of  it  welcomed  all  traveling  ministers  who  came 
that  way.  It  was,  therefore,  not  an  unusual  cir- 
cumstance when  a  friend  of  the  Fells  brought 
"the  man  in  leather  breeches"  to  spend  the  night 
in  Swarthmore  Hall.  Judge  Fell  was  absent  on 
his  circuit  and  his  wife,  too,  was  away  from  home 
when  Fox  arrived,  but  Lampitt,  the  Ulverston 
minister,  came  to  the  Hall  on  the  afternoon  of 
his  arrival  and  had  a  long  talk  and  discussion  with 
him.  Fox  at  once  took  a  positive  dislike  to  Lam- 
pitt, for  he  had  a  clear  sense  that  the  Ulverston 


46 


THE  STORY  OF  GEORGE  FOX 


minister  was  impure  in  his  life  and  insincere,  preach- 
ing lofty  things  to  others  but  Hving  himself  in  sin, 
and  when  Margaret  Fell  returned  in  the  evening 
she  found  that  her  guest,  whose  name  she  had 
only  recently  heard,  had  had  a  vigorous  discussion 
and  a  sharp  disagreement  with  her  minister. 

The  next  day  was  "  lecture  day  "  in  the  Ulverston 
church  and  Fox  was  invited  to  hear  "priest  Lam- 
pitt"  preach,  but  he  chose  instead  to  "walk  in 
the  fields,"  where  he  always  seems  to  have  felt 
especially  near  to  God.  He  had  not  walked  long 
in  the  fields,  however,  before  "the  word  of  the 
Lord  came  to  him"  to  go  to  the  church.  They 
were  singing  a  hymn  as  he  came  in,  and,  when  the 
hymn  was  finished,  Fox  asked  permission  to  speak. 
As  Margaret  Fell  has  given  a  vivid  account  of 
what  happened  in  the  church  we  will  let  her  tell 
it:  "When  they  had  done  singing,  he  stood  up 
upon  a  seat  or  form,  and  desired  that  he  might 
have  liberty  to  speak,  and  he  that  was  in  the 
pulpit  said  he  might.  And  the  first  words  that 
he  spoke  were  as  followeth,  'He  is  not  a  Jew  that 
is  one  outward,  neither  is  that  circumcision,  which 
is  outward;  but  he  is  a  Jew  that  is  one  inward,  and 
that  is  circumcision,  which  is  of  the  heart.'  And 
so  he  went  on,  and  said  how  that  Christ  was  the 
Light  of  the  world,  and  lighteth  every  man  that 
Cometh  into  the  world,  and  that  by  this  Light  they 
might  be  gathered  to  God.   And  I  stood  up  in  my 


THE  NEW  GROUP  OF  FRIENDS  IN  THE  NORTH  47 


pew,  and  I  wondered  at  his  doctrine,  for  I  had  never 
heard  such  before.  And  then  he  went  on  and 
opened  up  the  Scriptures,  and  said  that  the  Scrip- 
tures were  the  prophets'  words  and  Christ's  and 
the  apostles'  words;  what  they  spoke  they  en- 
joyed and  possessed  and  had  it  from  the  Lord. 
And  [he]  said,  'Then  what  had  any  to  do  with  the 
Scriptures,  but  as  they  came  to  the  Spirit  that 
gave  them  forth  You  will  say,  Christ  saith  this, 
and  the  apostles  say  this,  but  what  canst  thou  say? 
Art  thou  a  Child  of  the  Light,  and  hast  thou 
walked  in  the  Light,  and  what  thou  speakest  is  it 
inwardly  from  the  Lord?  This  opened  me  so,  that 
it  cut  me  to  the  heart,  and  then  I  saw  clearly 
that  we  were  all  wrong.  So  I  sat  down  in  my  pew 
again,  and  cried  bitterly:  and  I  cried  in  my  spirit 
to  the  Lord,  '  We  are  all  thieves,  we  are  all  thieves, 
we  have  taken  the  Scriptures  in  words  and  know 
nothing  of  them  in  ourselves. 

As  Fox  went  on  to  describe  the  present  condition 
of  the  Church  and  was  pointing  out  how  different 
it  was  from  the  Church  in  the  days  of  the  apostles, 
a  justice  of  the  peace,  named  John  Sawrey,  a 
staunch  Puritan,  whom  Margaret  Fell  calls  a 
"professor,"  interrupted  him  and  told  the  church- 
warden to  take  him  out  of  the  church.  The  church- 
warden was  trying  to  perform  his  disagreeable 
task  when  suddenly  Margaret  Fell  rose  up  again 
in  her  pew  and  called  out  in  a  tone  of  authority. 


48 


THE  STORY  OF  GEORGE  FOX 


"Let  him  alone,  why  may  not  he  speak  as  well  as 
any  other?"  Whereupon  the  churchwarden  let 
Fox  alone  and  Mistress  Fell  took  him  back  to 
Swarthmore  Hall  in  peace.  That  night  he  spoke 
with  penetrating  power  to  the  family  and  servants 
in  the  Hall  and  they  were  convinced  that  what  he 
said  was  true.  Fox  visited  many  neighboring 
places,  everywhere  gathering  more  followers.  In 
the  meantime  James  Nayler  and  Richard  Farns- 
worth  had  come  to  Westmoreland  to  join  him  and 
they,  too,  helped  to  establish  the  Swarthmore 
Hall  group  in  their  new-found  faith.  The  ministers 
of  the  surrounding  churches  and  the  men  of  the 
strong  Puritan  stamp  like  Justice  Sawrey  were 
much  aroused  at  the  progress  which  George  Fox 
was  making  in  their  district  and  they  resolved  to 
set  powerful  Judge  Fell  against  him.  A  large 
party  of  them,  with  captains  and  magistrates, 
went  to  meet  the  judge  as  he  was  returning  from 
his  circuit,  three  weeks  after  the  arrival  of  Fox, 
and  poured  their  tale  of  woe  into  his  ears:  "A 
fanatic,  ranting  preacher  in  leather  breeches, 
named  George  Fox,  had  come  to  Swarthmore  Hall 
and  had  bewitched  his  wife,  and  had  bewitched 
his  entire  household.  This  vagrant  preacher  had 
taken  away  their  religion  and  had  turned  them 
into  mad  Quakers.  He  was  destroying  the  churches 
and  spreading  his  wild  ideas  in  every  direction 
and  he  and  his  Quakers  must  be  thrust  out  of  the 


THE  NEW  GROUP  OF  FRIENDS  IN  THE  NORTH  49 


district,  or  clapt  into  a  dungeon  at  once  or  there 
would  be  a  complete  havoc  of  everything  they 
loved  in  the  country."  Judge  Fell  was  a  man  of 
strong  nature  and  powerful  will,  and,  as  he  heard 
this  story  of  bewitchment,  his  wrath  was  kindled 
and  he  came  riding  to  his  greatly  altered  home  in 
profound  grief  and  anger.  Nobody  could  foresee 
what  would  happen  next. 


CHAPTER  VI 


THE   BEGINNING  OF  A  NEW  ERA 

Angry  as  he  was  at  what  was  taking  place  in 
his  home,  Judge  Fell  was  nevertheless  a  calm  and 
sensible  man.  He  knew  and  trusted  his  wife. 
He  would  not  condemn  her  until  he  had  heard  her 
story.  He  was  "greatly  offended,"  but  he  did  not 
lose  his  head.  As  Margaret  Fell  says,  "he  be- 
haved moderately  and  wisely."  She  herself  was 
in  a  desperate  strait,  for  she  felt  sure  that  she  must 
either  displease  her  husband  or  disobey  God  and 
the  truth.  The  judge  was  stern  and  quiet,  and 
everybody  could  see  in  his  hard  and  silent  face 
that  he  did  not  like  what  had  happened  in  his 
absence.  James  Nayler  and  Richard  Farnsworth 
were  in  the  Hall  at  the  time  and  Mistress  Fell 
asked  them  during  the  afternoon  to  come  in  and 
explain  to  her  husband  why  they  had  come  and 
what  their  religious  faith  was.  Like  the  real  man 
he  was.  Judge  Fell  listened  quietly  to  them  and 
seemed  to  understand  their  spirit.  George  Fox 
was  expected  that  evening  and  everything  would 
depend  on  the  impression  which  he  would  make 
upon  the  judge.  At  evening  dinner  Margaret 
Fell  began  suddenly  to  quake  and  tremble,  as  the 

so 


THE   BEGINNING  OF  A  NEW  ERA  5I 


early  Quakers  sometimes  did  in  their  meetings, 
and  the  judge  was  "struck  with  amazement," 
as  he  beheld  her,  "and  knew  not  what  to  think, 
but  was  quiet  and  still."  The  children,  too,  were 
all  altered  in  manner  and  behavior.  They  were 
all  "  quiet  and  still  and  grown  sober,  and  could 
not  play  on  their  music."  The  poor  judge  hardly 
knew  his  own  home,  and  he  sat  and  wondered. 

A  little  later  George  himself  arrived.  Mistress 
Fell  came  quietly  to  the  parlor  where  the  per- 
plexed judge  was  sitting  alone  and  asked  if  George 
Fox  might  come  in  and  talk  with  him.  Judge 
Fell  said,  "Yes."  George  came  in  with  his  hat  on 
his  head  and  without  paying  any  of  the  customary 
compliments.  He  spoke  almost  at  once  of  his 
mission  in  the  world  and  told  the  judge  simply 
and  plainly  the  message  which  he  preached  every- 
where. As  he  went  on  talking  the  family  and 
servants  gathered  into  the  parlor;  James  Nayler 
and  Richard  Farnsworth  came  in  and  George 
preached  on,  "very  excellently,"  Margaret  Fell's 
account  says,  "as  ever  I  heard  him."  "He  opened 
Christ's  and  the  apostles'  practices  which  they 
were  in,  in  their  day.  And  he  opened  the  night 
of  apostasy,  since  the  apostles'  days,  and  laid 
open  the  priests  and  their  practices  in  the  apos- 
tasy; and  if  all  England  had  been  there,  I  thought 
they  could  not  have  denied  the  truth  of  those 
things." 


THE  STORY  OF  GEORGE  FOX 


It  was  a  great  crisis  in  Fox's  life  and  very  much 
depended  on  the  decision  which  the  prominent 
judge  before  him  should  give.  He  was  used  to 
hearing  important  cases  and  of  going  straight  to 
the  central  point.  So  now  he  did  not  allow  the 
stories  he  had  heard  to  influence  him.  He  made 
nothing  of  the  lack  of  formal  compliments.  He 
calmly  weighed  the  words  of  the  man  speaking 
in  his  parlor  and  he  believed  that  they  were  true. 
He  said  little.  He  went  to  bed  "very  quiet,"  but 
"he  clearly  saw  the  truth."  The  next  morning 
"priest  Lampitt"  came  and  started  a  counter- 
offensive.  But  it  was  no  use;  it  was  too  late. 
"My  husband,"  Margaret  says,  "had  seen  so 
much  the  night  before  that  the  priest  got  litde 
entrance  upon  him." 

A  little  later,  Judge  Fell  of  his  own  accord 
offered  the  use  of  the  Hall  as  a  meeting  place  for 
Friends  and,  though  he  himself  never  joined  them, 
he  appreciated  their  message,  he  showed  them 
much  kindness,  he  opposed  those  who  persecuted 
them  and  he  would  often  sit  quietly  in  his  own 
room,  adjoining  the  large  meeting  room  of  the 
Hall,  with  his  door  ajar,  and  listen  to  the  Quaker 
preaching.  And  so  until  his  death,  a  few  years 
later,  the  old  judge  and  Parliamentarian  gave  the 
new  movement  his  respect  and  blessing,  though 
he  felt  himself  too  old  to  change  his  ways  and 
religious  habits;  and  he  let  his  wife  and  daughters 


THE   BEGINNING  OF  A  NEW  ERA 


53 


have  full  liberty  to  worship  God  as  their  hearts 
prompted  them. 

While  the  cause  of  Fox  was  gaining  this  power- 
ful support. and  he  was  adding  so  many  important 
persons  to  his  new-born  Society,  his  opponents 
were  more  than  ever  resolved  to  crush  him  and 
stop  his  influence.  Justice  Sawrey,  "the  first 
stirrer  up  of  cruel  persecution  in  the  North,"  was 
the  leader  of  the  opposition  forces  in  Westmore- 
land and  he  and  others  inflamed  the  mob-element 
to  make  Fox's  work  in  that  district  henceforth 
impossible.  The  first  collision  of  forces  came  at 
Ulverston,  where  Fox,  with  the  word  of  God  in 
his  soul,  "like  a  fire  and  a  hammer,"  tried  to  preach 
again  on  a  "lecture-day."  Justice  Sawrey  roused 
the  people  to  a  furious  rage  and  set  them  on  the 
preacher.  Fox  says,  "They  fell  on  me  in  the 
steeple-house;  knocked  me  down,  kicked  me  and 
trampled  upon  me."  After  much  uproar  and  con- 
flict between  those  who  opposed  Fox  and  those 
who  sympathized  with  him,  he  was  dragged  to 
"the  common  moss-side"  and  there  beaten  with 
staves  and  hedge-stakes,  and  with  holm  or  holly- 
bushes  until,  unconscious,  he  fell  down  upon  the 
wet  common.  "When  I  recovered,"  the  Journal 
says,  "  and  saw  myself  lying  in  a  watery  common, 
and  the  people  standing  about  me,  I  lay  still  a 
little  while;  and  the  power  of  the  Lord  sprang 
through  me,  and  the  Eternal  Refreshings  refreshed 


54 


THE  STORY  OF  GEORGE  FOX 


me,  SO  that  I  stood  up  again  in  the  strengthening 
power  of  the  Eternal  God;  and  stretching  out  my^ 
arms  amongst  them  I  said  with  a  loud  voice, 
'Strike  again;  here  are  my  arms,  my  head  and  my 
cheeks.' " 

"There  was  in  the  company,"  the  graphic  ac- 
count continues,  "a  mason,  a  professor,  but  a  rude 
fellow;  he  with  his  walking  rule-stafF  gave  me  a 
blow  with  all  his  might,  just  over  the  back  of  my 
hand,  as  it  was  stretched  out;  with  which  blow  my 
hand  was  so  bruised  and  my  arm  so  benumbed, 
that  I  could  not  draw  it  unto  me  again;  so  that 
some  of  the  people  cried  out,  '  he  hath  spoiled  his 
hand  for  ever  having  the  use  of  it  any  more.' 
But  I  looked  at  it  in  the  love  of  God  (for  I  was  in 
the  love  of  God  to  them  all,  that  had  persecuted 
me)  and  after  a  while  the  Lord's  power  sprang 
through  me  again  and  through  my  hand  and  arm, 
so  that  in  a  moment  I  recovered  strength  in  my 
hand  and  arm,  in  the  sight  of  them  all." 

Thereupon  the  unconquered  and  fearless  man 
was  "moved  of  the  Lord"  to  go  back  to  Ulverston 
and  walk  through  the  market-place  where  many 
people  were  gathered.  As  he  was  going  through 
the  market-place  a  soldier,  belted  and  armed,  met 
him  and  said  with  admiration:  "Sir,  I  see  you  are 
a  many  and  I  am  ashamed  and  grieved  that  you 
should  be  so  abused.  If  I  can  do  anything  to 
assist  you,  let  me  know."    Fox  quietly  told  his 


THE   BEGINNING  OF  A  NEW  ERA  55 


unknown  soldier-friend  that  "the  Lord's  power 
was  over  all,"  and  that  he  needed  no  sword. 
That  night  when  Fox  got  back  to  Swarthmore 
Hall  his  body  and  arms  were  "yellow,  black  and 
blue,  with  blows  and  bruises,"  but  his  spirit  was 
triumphant. 

A  still  more  fierce  and  brutal  assault  was  made 
upon  him  two  weeks  later  at  Walney,  a  little  is- 
land which  skirts  the  western  coast  of  Furness. 
He  went  to  Walney  with  James  Nayler  and  had  a 
meeting  in  the  town  of  Cockan  on  the  island.  A 
man  came  into  the  meeting  with  a  cocked  pistol 
and  asked  for  George  Fox.  The  people  ran  away 
in  great  fear,  but  Fox  stepped  up  to  the  man  with- 
out fear  of  the  pistol.  The  man  aimed  the  pistol 
at  Fox  and  snapped  the  trigger,  but  the  pistol 
"would  not  go  off."  The  people  tried  to  seize 
the  man,  to  prevent  him  from  doing  mischief,  but 
Fox  was  "moved  in  the  Lord's  power"  to  speak 
to  him,  which  struck  such  a  fear  into  his  soul  that 
he  trembled  and  went  and  hid  himself  away. 

But  the  next  morning,  in  another  part  of  the 
island,  a  mob  of  forty  men  "with  staves,  clubs 
and  fishing  poles"  fell  upon  Fox,  beating  him 
and  pushing  him  toward  the  sea,  aiming  appar- 
ently to  drown  him,  which  they  almost  did.  It 
seems  that  the  people  all  believed  that  Fox  had 
"bewitched"  James  Lancaster,  one  of  their  towns- 
men who  was  "convinced"  by  Fox's  preaching 


56 


THE   STORY  OF  GEORGE  FOX 


and  had  become  a  Quaker.  Full  of  rage  and  led 
on  by  Lancaster's  wife,  they  rushed  at  the  gentle 
Fox,  knocked  him  down,  stunned  him  and  rained 
volleys  of  stones  upon  him.  When  he  came  back 
to  consciousness,  he  saw  James  Lancaster  shielding 
him  with  his  own  body  while  Lancaster's  wife  was 
trying  to  dash  stones  at  his  face.  Lancaster  suc- 
ceeded in  getting  his  wounded  friend  into  a  boat 
and  so  rescuing  him  from  the  frantic  mob  which 
stoned  the  boat  until  it  was  out  beyond  their 
range.  Meantime  they  discovered  James  Nayler 
who  was  left  behind  and  they  fell  upon  him,  crying, 
"  Kill  him,  kill  him."  Nayler  also  had  a  narrow 
escape,  but  eventually  managed  to  get  off  with 
only  heavy  bruises.  When  Fox  and  Lancaster 
landed  from  their  boat  across  the  channel  on  the 
mainland,  another  crowd  came  at  them  with 
"pitchforks,  flails  and  staves,"  crying,  "Kill  him, 
knock  him  on  the  head,  bring  the  cart  and  carry 
him  away  to  the  church  yard."  He  fortunately 
got  away  from  the  rabble  alive,  though  covered 
with  bruises  and  besmeared  all  over  with  miry 
dirt,  and  so  sore  that  the  next  day  he  was  unable 
to  ride  on  the  horse  which  Margaret  Fell,  hearing 
of  his  experience,  sent  to  fetch  him  back  to  Swarth- 
more  Hall. 

Not  having  killed  him  by  mob  violence  and 
not  being  able  by  persecution  to  stop  the  impetus 
of  his  movement,  his  opponents  now  tried  to  get 


THE   BEGINNING  OF  A   NEW  ERA  57 


him  imprisoned  on  the  charge  that  he  had  claimed 
to  be  divine  and  equal  with  God!  A  court  warrant 
was  issued  against  him,  while  Judge  Fell  was 
absent  on  business,  but  when  Judge  Fell  returned 
the  officials  were  afraid  to  carry  it  out  and  so  did 
not  "serve  it"  on  Fox.  He,  however,  rode  to  the 
city  of  Lancaster  at  the  time  of  the  court  sessions 
to  defend  himself.  Judge  Fell,  loyal  to  his  guest, 
went  with  him,  and  stood  by  him,  like  the  brave 
man  he  was.  Fox  not  only  cleared  himself  of  the 
charges  in  the  unserved  warrant,  but  he  was  given 
a  public  opportunity  in  the  court  room  to  declare 
his  message,  which  he  did  in  such  a  way  that  many 
prominent  persons  in  Lancaster  were  convinced  by 
it.  This  affair  at  the  sessions  called  forth  a  famous 
little  book  from  Fox's  pen — one  of  the  first  of 
many  such — which  he  called,  "Saul's  Errand  to 
Damascus,  with  His  Packet  of  Letters  from  the 
High  Priest  against  the  Disciples  of  the  Lord." 
Another  attempt  was  made  at  the  January  session 
of  the  court  in  Lancaster  to  try  Fox,  on  a  similar 
charge,  but  Colonel  West,  the  clerk  of  the  assize,  re- 
fused to  issue  the  warrant  and  told  the  judge  that  he 
was  ready  to  offer  up  his  estate  and  even  his  body 
for  Fox,  whom  he  believed  to  be  innocent.  Fox, 
hearing  that  he  might  be  summoned,  went  straight 
to  Lancaster  to  confront  his  adversaries,  but  "the 
Lord's  power  was  over  all  and  gave  dominion." 
For  many  weeks  following,  during  the  spring 


58 


THE  STORY  OF  GEORGE  FOX 


of  1653,  with  his  headquarters  at  Swarthmore  Hall, 
he  labored  in  Westmoreland,  Cumberland,  Lan- 
cashire and  the  western  part  of  Yorkshire,  with 
the  usual  experiences  of  success  and  fierce  persecu- 
tion. Sitting  one  day  in  April  at  Swarthmore 
Hall,  when  Judge  Fell  and  Justice  Gervase  Benson 
were  discussing  the  news  and  talking  of  events 
in  Parliament,  of  which  Judge  Fell  was  probably 
still  a  member,  Fox  was  suddenly  "moved  to  tell 
them  that  before  that  day  two  weeks  the  Parlia- 
ment should  be  broken  up  and  the  speaker  plucked 
out  of  his  chair."  Two  weeks  passed,  and  Justice 
Benson  once  more  visited  Swarthmore,  this  time 
with  the  news  that  Oliver  Cromwell  had  expelled 
the  "Rump,"  as  it  was  called,  of  the  Long  Parlia- 
ment, and  had  "plucked  the  speaker  out  of  his 
chair."  "George,  I  see,"  he  told  Judge  Fell,  "is 
a  true  prophet." 

It  was  not,  however,  because  he  foresaw  an 
occasional  event  that  George  Fox  was  a  "  prophet "; 
it  was  rather  because  he  saw,  more  clearly  than 
most  did,  the  truth  about  man's  soul  and  the  real, 
spiritual  nature  of  religion,  and  because  he  was 
able,  through  sacrifice  and  sufi^ering,  to  make 
others  see.  "To  receive  and  go  with  a  message 
and  to  have  a  word  from  the  Lord,  as  the  prophets 
and  apostles  had  and  did,  and  as  I  had  done"  he 
told  the  priests  who  came  to  discuss  with  him  at 
Swarthmore,  was  the  real  mark  of  living  religion. 


CHAPTER  VII 


THE  MEETING  WITH  OLIVER  CROMWELL 

In  midsummer  of  1653,  George  Fox  came  to 
Carlisle.  He  had  his  first  meeting  here  in  the 
Abbey  with  Baptists  and  soldiers,  many  of  whom 
were  "convinced."  Then  he  went  to  the  Castle 
and  preached  to  the  garrison,  telling  the  soldiers 
that  Christ  within  them  would  be  their  teacher 
and  their  guide,  if  they  would  watch  for  the  divine 
Light  and  obey  it,  when  it  revealed  itself  to  them. 
He  went  also  to  the  market  place  and  warned  all 
who  were  selling  merchandise  against  cheating  and 
against  all  forms  of  unfair  or  dishonest  dealing. 
While  he  was  speaking  a  man  cried  out  against  him 
and  Fox  "set  his  eyes  upon  him  and  spoke  to  him 
in  the  power  of  the  Lord,"  whereupon  the  man, 
who  could  not  stand  the  gaze,  cried:  "  Do  not  pierce 
me  so  with  thy  eyes;  keep  thy  eyes  off"  me." 

Finally  Fox  went  on  Sunday  morning  to  the 
cathedral  and,  "after  the  priest  had  done," 
"preached  the  truth  to  the  people  and  declared 
the  word  of  life  amongst  them."  The  Journal 
says  that  the  power  of  the  Lord  was  so  dreadful 
among  them  that  the  people  trembled  and  shook, 
and  many  thought  that  the  "  steeple-house  "  shook ! 

S9 


6o 


THE  STORY  OF  GEORGE  FOX 


A  party  of  the  people,  led  on  by  the  magistrates' 
wives,  rose  up  in  rage  against  him,  but  the  soldiers 
sided  with  him  and  rallied  around  him.  In  the  midst 
of  the  tumult  a  file  of  soldiers,  at  the  governor's 
order,  came  down  from  the  garrison  and  arrested 
him,  though  the  soldiers  who  had  heard  him  re- 
mained very  friendly  and  sympathetic.  He  was 
committed  to  prison  on  the  charge  of  being  "a 
blasphemer,  a  heretic  and  a  seducer!" 

As  Fox  had  been  in  prison  once  before  at  Derby 
on  the  charge  of  blasphemy  there  was  grave  danger 
that  he  would  now  be  hanged,  if  he  were  found 
guilty  by  the  court  a  second  time.  He  was  abomin- 
ably treated  in  the  prison,  put  into  the  worst 
dungeon  "with  moss-troopers  [cut-throats]  thieves 
and  murderers,"  in  a  place  full  of  insects  and 
not  fit  for  cattle  to  live  in.  Beside  this  vile  treat- 
ment, he  was  frequently  cudgeled  by  the  brutal 
jailer,  who  "beat  Friends  as  if  he  had  been  beating 
a  pack  of  wool."  When  the  prisoner  went  to  the 
grate  to  get  his  food,  the  jailer  would  beat  him 
off  "with  a  great  staff."  On  one  occasion,  when 
the  jailer  was  fiercely  beating  him  with  his  cudgel. 
Fox  began  to  "sing  in  the  Lord's  power."  The 
jailer  went  away  and  got  a  fiddler  and  brought 
him  into  the  dungeon  and  set  him  playing.  Fox 
was  "moved  in  the  everlasting  power  of  the  Lord 
God  to  sing,"  and,  he  adds,  "my  voice  drowned 
them  and  struck  them  and  confounded  them." 


THE  MEETING  WITH  OLIVER  CROMWELL  6l 


Some  of  his  powerful,  influential  friends,  notably 
Anthony  Pearson  and  Gervase  Benson,  wrote 
vigorous  letters  to  the  Carlisle  authorities  in  his 
behalf  and  parliamentary  influence  from  London 
was  exercised  in  his  favor,  so  that  after  an  impris- 
onment of  seven  weeks  Fox  was  released  without 
undergoing  a  trial. 

While  he  was  in  the  Carlisle  prison  a  young  lad 
of  sixteen,  named  James  Parnell,  walked  a  hun- 
dred and  fifty  miles  to  have  an  interview  with  the 
famous  Quaker.  He  was  "convinced"  and  be- 
came one  of  the  most  wonderful  and  effective  of 
all  the  young  preachers  of  the  Light.  He  became 
a  gentle  saint,  like  St.  Francis,  and  when  in  Col- 
chester, where  he  labored  as  the  first  Quaker 
apostle  in  that  district,  a  brutal  man  struck  him 
with  a  great  staff"  and  said  "Take  that  for  Jesus 
Christ's  sake,"  the  young  lad  answered,  "Friend, 
I  do  receive  it  for  Jesus  Christ's  sake."  Here  in  a 
terrible  hole  in  Colchester  Castle  "Little  James" 
met  his  death,  after  valiant  work  for  Christ,  and 
so  became  the  first  Quaker  martyr. 

Meantime  the  Quaker  cause  was  powerfully 
advancing.  New  districts  were  constantly  being 
visited  by  the  bands  of  workers,  new  preachers 
were  being  won  for  the  work  and  the  first  simple 
stage  of  organization  was  now  begun.  Of  all  the 
eflforts  to  tell  England  about  the  Quaker  message 
none  were  more  remarkable  than  those  which 


62 


THE   STORY  OF  GEORGE  FOX 


were  made  in  London  and  Bristol.  The  two  mes- 
sengers who  came  to  London  to  tell  the  people  of 
that  city  about  the  Light  of  Christ  in  the  lives 
of  men  were  Francis  Howgill  and  Edward  Bur- 
rough,  who,  as  we  have  seen,  had  once  been 
"Seekers."  They  were  young  men,  full  of  life  and 
enthusiasm  and  powerful  preachers.  They  at  once 
produced  a  profound  impression.  Howgill  wrote 
joyously,  "By  the  arm  of  the  Lord  all  falls  be- 
fore us."  "Astonishment  took  hold"  upon  the 
people  and  multitudes  were  convinced.  It  was 
without  doubt  a  new  kind  of  preaching  and  it 
reached  the  hearts  of  men  and  women  as  nothing 
had  done  for  generations  before.  No  less  extraor- 
dinary was  the  effect  of  the  preaching  of  Audland 
and  Camm  in  Bristol.  They  discovered  in  and 
around  the  city  communities  of  Seekers  like  those 
in  the  northern  counties  and  here,  again,  these 
waiting  people  came  over  in  multitudes  to  join 
those  who  believed  that  they  were  happy  finders. 
Sometimes  more  than  3000  people  came  to  their 
meetings  and  they  write  with  enthusiasm  that 
their  "net  is  likely  to  break  with  fishes." 

George  Fox,  too,  was  having  vast  throngs  at 
meetings  in  the  north.  Many  thousands  the 
Journal  says,  were  at  "a  mighty  meeting"  at 
Synderhill  Green,  near  Halifax,  and  "the  Lord's 
power  and  truth  was  over  all."  Great  meetings 
were  later  held  in  Lincolnshire  and  in  many  other 


THE  MEETING  WITH  OLIVER  CROMWELL  63 


counties,  as  Fox  traveled  south.  He  came,  in  his 
journeyings,  to  his  old  home  at  Fenny  Drayton 
which  he  had  not  visited  for  three  years.  Here 
he  had  long  and  vigorous  discussions  with  "priest 
Stephens"  and  with  eight  other  clergymen  who 
came  to  his  help.  "The  Lord's  power  came  over 
all"  and  his  "truth  confounded  them."  George's 
father,  good  old  "Righteous  Christer,"  though  he 
still  attended  the  church  and  had  not  been  com- 
pletely "convinced,"  listened  with  keen  apprecia- 
tion to  his  son's  words  and  struck  his  cane  on  the 
ground  and  said,  "Truly,  I  see,  he  that  will  stand 
to  the  truth,  it  will  carry  him  out  [triumphantly]." 
Even  "priest  Stephens"  said,  "What  might  George 
not  have  been,  if  it  had  not  been  for  the  Quakers!" 

After  many  experiences  in  his  home  neighbor- 
hood Fox  went  on  with  his  travels,  until  he  came 
to  Whetstone  in  the  same  county  as  Drayton,  i.  e., 
Leicestershire,  where  he  planned  to  hold  a  meeting 
with  Friends  who  were  coming  in  from  the  sur- 
rounding district.  A  band  of  soldiers  from  Col- 
onel Hacker's  regiment  came  to  this  meeting, 
evidently  suspecting  there  was  some  plot  brewing 
against  Oliver  Cromwell.  The  troopers  stopped 
the  meeting  and  took  George  Fox,  with  one  of  his 
companions,  to  Colonel  Hacker.  Hacker  seems  to 
have  been  convinced  that  Fox  and  his  friends  were 
plotting  to  overthrow  the  government  and  pos- 
sibly intended  to  restore  the  Stuarts!    He  en- 


64 


THE  STORY  OF  GEORGE  FOX 


deavored  to  make  the  Quaker  traveler  promise 
not  to  hold  any  more  meetings,  but  quite  naturally 
he  failed  to  get  such  a  promise!  Whereupon  he 
decided  to  send  Fox  to  London  to  be  dealt  with 
by  Oliver  Cromwell  himself.  Before  sending  him 
to  London,  the  Colonel  made  one  more  effort  to 
induce  his  prisoner  to  give  the  desired  promise. 
He  had  Fox  brought  to  his  bedroom  in  the  early 
morning  and  asked  him  if  he  would  promise. 
George  replied,  "I  shall  go  to  meetings  whenever 
the  Lord  orders  me  to  go."  "Well,  then,"  said 
Colonel  Hacker,  "you  must  go  to  the  Protector." 
Fox,  thereupon,  kneeled  by  his  bedside  and  asked 
the  Lord  to  forgive  him.  "And  when  the  day 
of  thy  misery  and  trial  comes  upon  thee,"  Fox 
said  to  him,  "I  bid  thee  remember  what  I  had 
said  to  thee  now."  When  Colonel  Hacker  was 
about  to  be  executed  a  few  years  later  he  did 
remember. 

Captain  Drury,  who  was  given  charge  of  taking 
Fox  to  Cromwell,  kept  asking  him  on  their  journey 
up  to  London,  if  he  was  not  ready  now  to  "  promise  " 
not  to  hold  meetings  and  so  have  his  liberty. 
The  captain  got  no  results.  As  they  put  up  at 
inns  on  the  way  Fox  was  "moved  of  the  Lord  to 
warn  the  people  that  the  day  of  the  Lord  was 
coming."  And  so  the  strange  procession  went  on 
until  they  came  to  London  and  Captain  Drury 
lodged  his  prisoner  in  the  "Mermaid  Inn,"  and 


THE  MEETING  WITH  OLIVER  CROMWELL 


went  to  make  his  report  to  the  Protector.  Crom- 
well requested  that  Fox  sign  a  document  promis- 
ing not  to  take  up  arms  against  the  government! 
The  Quaker  prisoner  then  wrote  a  letter  to  tell 
Oliver  Cromwell  that  God  had  sent  him  (George 
Fox)  to  turn  people  from  darkness  to  light,  not  to 
bear  arms  against  anybody;  to  be  a  witness  against 
evil  and  hate  and  violence,  to  bring  men  away 
from  swords  and  guns  and  killing  and  to  lead 
them  to  a  kind  of  life  which  would  make  war 
impossible.  It  gradually  dawned  upon  the  mind 
of  the  captain  that  his  prisoner  was  not  very 
dangerous  after  all  and  finally  he  took  him  in  an 
informal  way  to  Whitehall  to  see  the  Protector. 

It  was  in  the  early  morning  and  Cromwell  was 
in  the  process  of  being  dressed  by  his  valet  when 
Fox  was  ushered  in  to  his  presence.  The  meeting 
was  in  the  famous  Whitehall  palace.  "Peace  be 
to  this  house,"  was  the  salutation  with  which 
George  Fox  entered  the  Protector's  bedroom. 
Here  they  were  face  to  face,  two  of  the  most 
remarkable  and  two  of  the  most  typical  men  of 
the  seventeenth  century  in  England.  They  were 
very  unlike  and  yet  they  had  much  in  common. 
They  were  both  the  product  of  great  spiritual 
forces  and  religious  movements  and  both  were  try- 
ing, each  in  his  own  way,  to  free  England  from 
the  tyranny  of  the  past.  Both  feared  God  and 
nothing  else  in  the  world,  and  both  were  sincere 


66 


THE   STORY  OF  GEORGE  FOX 


men,  who  meant  to  be  true  to  the  light  which 
they  had  to  live  by.  What  a  scene  it  was  for  some 
great  painter  to  portray.  Throughout  the  entire 
interview  George  Fox  wore  his  hat,  and  Cromwell, 
before  whom  everybody  else  uncovered  and  bowed 
or  kneeled,  was  not  the  least  offended,  but  under- 
stood by  a  kind  of  fine  instinct  that  his  visitor 
meant  him  no  disrespect.  The  two  brave  men 
talked  together  much  about  truth  and  much 
about  religion,  and  they  seem  to  have  understood 
one  another  fairly  well  and  to  have  had  consider- 
able agreement  in  their  talk.  Fox  says  that  Oliver 
"carried  himself  very  moderately."  Oliver  told 
George  that  he  quarreled  too  much  with  the  min- 
isters. It  was  a  good  point  to  make  and  there  was 
some  real  truth  in  it.  Fox  claimed  that  it  was  the 
ministers  who  began  the  quarrel,  that  they  were 
forever  attacking  him,  though  he  admitted  that 
he  often  charged  the  ministers  with  preaching  for 
money,  with  being  covetous  and  greedy,  and  with 
always  having  their  eyes  on  the  main  chance  for 
their  own  advancement.  Several  times  Oliver 
declared  "that  is  so,"  "that  is  true,"  "that  is  a 
fact."  Fox  pointed  out  in  his  usual  way  that  it 
was  not  enough  to  read  the  Scriptures  and  to 
claim  to  believe  them;  that  to  be  a  true  Christian 
one  must  have  the  Spirit  and  life  and  power  of  the 
apostles  and  prophets  who  wrote  the  Scriptures, 
and  not  merely  to  have  their  books,  and  Oliver 


THE  MEETING  WITH  OLIVER  CROMWELL  67 


apparently  thought  so  too.  He  caught  George  by 
the  hand,  his  eyes  filled  with  tears,  and  he  said, 
"Come  again  to  my  house,  for  if  thou  and  I  were 
but  an  hour  a  day  together,  we  should  be  nearer  one 
to  the  other."  The  great  man  looked  up  kindly 
and  added,  I  wish  no  more  ill  to  thee  than  I  do 
to  my  own  soul."  To  which  George  replied,  "If 
thou  didst  wish  ill  to  me  thou  wouldst  wrong  thy 
own  soul." 

When  it  was  time  to  go  Fox,  like  an  ancient 
prophet,  bid  the  Lord  Protector  hearken  to  God's 
voice,  keep  in  the  fear  of  God,  that  he  might  stand 
and  live  and  act  in  God's  counsel  and  guidance. 
"If  thou  wilt  do  that,"  he  said,  "God  will  keep 
thee  tender  and  free  from  hardness  of  heart.  But 
if  thou  shalt  not  hear  God's  voice,  thy  heart  will 
become  hardened."  "That  is  so,"  Cromwell  con- 
fessed, and  the  two  men  parted. 

The  Protector  at  once  saw,  with  his  keen  eye 
which  looked  through  men,  that  this  man  was  no 
plotter,  no  dangerous  insurrectionist.  He  sent 
out  word  by  Captain  Drury,  before  Fox  had  left 
the  place,  that  he  was  at  full  liberty  and  might 
go  whither  he  would.  We  can  almost  hear  his 
visitor  calmly  say,  "How  otherwise."  By  Crom- 
well's order  Fox  was  then  brought  into  the  great 
hall  where  the  gentlemen  of  the  Protector's  court 
gathered  to  dine.  It  soon  began  to  dawn  upon 
the  mind  of  Fox  that  he  was  being  taken  to  a 


68 


THE  STORY  OF  GEORGE  FOX 


banquet  in  the  hall  of  the  palace  instead  of  to  a 
prison  and  immediately  he  declined  to  accept 
the  favor.  He  sent  a  message  back  to  the  Lord 
Protector  that  he  could  not  eat  his  food  nor  par- 
take of  his  drink.  When  this  message  reached 
Cromwell  he  said:  "Now  I  see  that  there  is  a  people 
risen  up  that  I  cannot  win  with  gifts,  honors, 
offices  or  places;  but  all  other  sects  and  people 
I  can."  Fox  returned  to  the  "Mermaid"  a  free 
man  and  paid  for  his  own  breakfast. 

This  unexpected  visit  to  London  gave  the 
Quaker  apostle  a  fine  opportunity  to  proclaim  his 
message  in  the  great  metropolis,  which  he  at  once 
proceeded  to  do  with  power  and  success.  He  had 
many  "great  and  powerful  meetings"  in  the  city 
and  a  vast  number  of  people  were  "convinced" 
who  swelled  the  rapidly  growing  new  Society. 
He  was  "moved"  also  "to  declare  the  day  of  the 
Lord"  to  the  people  in  Whitehall  palace  and 
"  there  was  a  great  convincement  in  the  Protector's 
house  and  family,"  though  he  did  not  this  time 
see  the  stern  old  warrior  who  had  become  the 
head  of  the  nation. 


CHAPTER  VIII 


IN  England's  worst  prison 

After  the  interview  with  Cromwell  and  the 
"powerful  meetings"  in  London,  Fox  started  off 
again  upon  his  almost  incessant  travels.  Probably 
no  man  in  the  seventeenth  century  knew  all  of 
England  as  intimately  as  he  did.  He  visited  not 
only  the  great  cities,  but  the  small  towns,  villages 
and  hamlets  as  well.  On  horseback  or  on  foot 
he  traveled  both  the  great  roads  and  the  country 
lanes.  He  met  and  talked  with  all  types  of  people 
and  he  saw  all  sides  of  life. 

Leaving  London  he  went  first  to  "a  great 
meeting"  at  Luton  in  Bedfordshire.  He  declared 
"God's  eternal  truth"  and  "people  generally 
were  convinced."  He  soon  returned  to  London, 
"where  Friends  were  finely  established  in  the 
truth,"  and  then  he  took  a  journey  through  the 
towns  and  villages  of  Kent.  In  his  wide  journey- 
ings  he  went  to  Colchester  and  had  a  brief  farewell 
visit  with  James  Parnell  a  short  time  before  that 
brave  young  martyr's  life  was  ended.  It  was  at 
this  period — sometime  in  the  autumn  of  1655 — 
that  he  rode  through  the  crowd  of  Cambridge 
students  who  could  not  unhorse  him  and  who 

69 


70 


THE   STORY  OF  GEORGE  FOX 


wondered  at  the  shine  on  his  face!  Not  long 
after  this,  when  he  was  riding  with  some  of  his 
companions  through  the  famous  town  of  Warwick, 
the  "rude  people"  gathered  with  stones  and 
sticks  to  give  them  a  rough  passage  through  the 
streets.  The  Journal  tells  the  story  well:  "One 
of  them  took  hold  of  my  horse's  bridle  and  broke 
it;  but  the  horse  drawing  back  threw  him  under 
him.  Though  the  bailiff  saw  this,  yet  he  did  not 
stop,  nor  so  much  as  rebuke,  the  rude  multitude, 
so  that  it  was  much  we  were  not  slain  or  hurt 
in  the  streets;  for  the  people  threw  stones  and 
struck  at  us,  as  we  rode  along  the  town.  When 
we  were  quite  out  of  the  town,  I  told  Friends 
it  was  upon  me  from  the  hard  that  I  must  go  back 
into  the  town  again."  "So,"  the  account  goes  on, 
"I  passed  through  the  market  in  the  dreadful 
power  of  God,  declaring  the  word  of  life  to  them, 
and  John  Crook  [one  of  his  companions]  followed 
me.  Some  struck  at  me;  but  the  Lord's  power 
was  over  them  and  gave  me  dominion  over  all." 

In  the  inn  at  Baldock,  one  of  the  many  places 
visited  on  this  tour  of  counties,  "two  desperate 
fellows"  fell  to  fighting  furiously,  so  that  "none 
durst  come  nigh  to  part  them."  "But  I  was 
moved  in  the  Lord's  power,"  Fox  says,  "to  go  to 
them;  and  when  I  had  loosed  their  hands,  I  held 
one  of  them  by  one  hand  and  the  other  by  the  other, 
showed  them  the  evil  of  their  doings  and  reconciled 


IN  England's  worst  prison 


71 


them  one  to  the  other  and  they  were  so  loving  and 
thankful  to  me  that  people  admired  it!" 

After  a  short  visit  again  to  London,  where  he 
saw  James  Nayler  and  had  a  foresight  that  some 
sad  trouble  was  coming  to  him — "a  fear  struck 
me  concerning  him" — Fox  started  off  on  a  great 
spiritual  campaign  through  the  western  counties 
of  England.  Edward  Pyott,  a  former  captain, 
and  William  Salt  of  London  were  his  companions 
in  travel.  It  proved  to  be  hard  and  barren  country 
for  Fox's  spiritual  message.  The  people  were 
light  and  flippant.  They  were  not  prepared  by 
long  spiritual  training  for  the  new  teaching,  as 
the  people  in  the  North  had  been.  The  travelers 
found  few  "sober"  or  "tender"  people  who  were 
ready  to  be  "convinced."  At  Kingsbridge,  in 
the  inn,  they  found  many  people  drinking  and 
Fox  was  "moved  of  the  Lord  to  go  in  amongst 
them,  and  direct  them  to  the  light  which  Christ, 
the  heavenly  Man,  had  enlightened  them  with: 
by  which  they  might  see  all  their  evil  ways,  words 
and  deeds,  and  by  the  same  light  they  might  also 
see  Jesus  their  Saviour.  The  innkeeper  stood 
uneasy,  seeing  that  the  speaking  hindered  his 
guests  from  drinking;  and  as  soon  as  the  last 
words  were  out  of  my  mouth,  he  snatched  up  the 
candle  and  said,  'Come,  here  is  a  light  for  you 
to  go  to  your  chamber.*  Next  morning,  when 
he  was  cool  I  represented  to  him  what  an  uncivil 


72 


THE   STORY  OF  GEORGE  FOX 


thing  it  was  for  him  to  do  so,  then  warning  him 
of  the  day  of  the  Lord,  we  got  ready  and  passed 
away. "  At  Plymouth  the  cause  prospered  better 
and  they  had  a  "precious  meeting."  "The  Lord's 
power  came  over  the  people"  here.  Many  were 
"convinced,"  among  them  Lady  Elizabeth  Tre- 
lawny,  daughter  of  a  baronet,  and  a  "fine  meeting 
was  settled  there  in  the  Lord's  power." 

Trouble  awaited  the  little  party  in  Cornwall. 
The  magistrates  were  resolved  to  have  no  Quakers 
in  their  district.  At  Marazion,  which  Fox  calls 
"Market-Jew,"  the  constables  summoned  Fox 
and  Pyott  to  appear  before  the  mayor  and  alder- 
men of  the  town.  They  had  no  warrant  to  make 
the  arrest  with,  and  when  Fox  asked  to  see  the 
warrant,  one  of  the  constables  pulled  out  his  mace 
from  under  his  cloak  and  said  that  was  his  warrant. 
Fox,  as  usual,  took  the  opportunity  of  delivering 
his  message  to  the  mayor  and  other  officials  who 
seem  to  have  been  impressed  and  were  ready  to 
let  the  little  party  go  on  unmolested.  But  un- 
fortunately they  were  met  about  three  miles  from 
the  town  by  an  officer  belonging  to  the  staff  of 
Major  Ceely  who  was  stationed  at  St.  Ives.  The 
officer  took  to  the  major  a  copy  of  a  paper  which 
Fox  had  written  and  distributed  telling  about  the 
light  within.  This  paper  aroused  Major  Ceely 
and  the  people  of  the  town  and  while  the  little 
party  was  waiting  to  have  a  horse  shod,  and  while 


IN  England's  worst  prison 


73 


Fox,  meantime,  had  gone  a  little  way  off  to  look 
at  Bristol  Channel,  Pyott  and  Salt  were  dragged 
away  to  Major  Ceely's  house.  Here  Fox  found 
them,  surrounded  by  "rude  people,"  "more  like 
Indians  than  like  Christians."  The  proceedings 
in  their  examination  were  very  irregular  and 
informal.  One  of  the  priests  who  was  present 
asked  Fox  why  he  didn't  have  his  hair  cut  and 
other  "frivolous"  things  were  said  and  done. 
Finally  they  were  put  under  a  guard  of  soldiers, 
"who  were  hard  and  wild,  like  the  justice  himself; 
nevertheless  we  warned  the  people  of  the  day 
of  the  Lord  and  declared  the  truth  to  them.  The 
next  day  he  sent  us,  guarded  by  a  party  of  horse, 
with  swords  and  pistols,  to  Redruth." 

The  next  day  was  Sunday — "First-day,"  Fox 
calls  it — but  the  soldiers  were  determined,  never- 
theless, to  travel  forward  with  their  prisoners. 
It  was,  however,  not  easy  to  make  progress.  Fox 
insisted  on  preaching  to  the  soldiers,  while  Pyott 
was  at  the  same  time  preaching  to  the  townspeople 
in  Redruth.  Then  Fox  went  to  give  his  message 
to  the  people  in  the  town  while  Pyott  spoke  in 
his  turn  to  the  soldiers.  William  Salt,  meantime, 
got  away  and  went  to  the  "steeple-house"  to 
give  a  message  to  the  priest  and  his  congregation. 
The  people  got  in  "a  mighty  rage"  and  came  with 
a  rush,  "ready  to  kill  us,"  Fox  says,  "but  I  de- 
clared the  day  of  the  Lord  and  the  word  of  eternal 


74 


THE  STORY  OF  GEORGE  FOX 


life"  to  them;  "When  we  were  got  to  the  town's 
end,"  he  continues,  "I  was  moved  of  the  Lord 
to  go  back  again.  .  .  .  The  soldiers  drew  out  their 
pistols  and  swore  I  should  not  go  back.  I  heeded 
them  not,  but  rode  back  and  they  rode  after  me." 
And  without  the  least  fear  of  the  soldiers'  pistols 
he  finished  his  religious  mission  in  Redruth! 

In  the  evening  of  this  strenuous  Sunday  the 
party  arrived  at  Falmouth,  then  called  Smethick, 
and  the  chief  constable  of  the  town  and  many 
"sober  people"  came  to  the  inn  to  have  discourse 
with  Fox  "concerning  the  things  of  God,"  and 
the  tired  man's  heart  was  much  refreshed.  But 
the  rough  and  lawless  soldiers,  who  were  under 
the  direction  of  a  thoroughly  unprincipled  leader, 
named  Keat,  continually  annoyed  and  abused 
Fox  and  his  friends.  Keat  brought  "a  rude  and 
wicked  man"  into  Fox's  room  at  the  inn,  and 
"this  evil-minded  man"  went  "huffing  up  and 
down  the  room."  Fox  bade  him  "fear  the  Lord." 
"Whereupon,"  the  Journal  says,  "he  ran  upon 
me,  struck  me  with  both  hands,  and  placing  his 
leg  behind  me,  would  fain  have  thrown  me  down, 
but  he  could  not  for  I  stood  stiff  and  still,  and 
let  him  strike!" 

The  escort  was  ordered  according  to  the  magis- 
trate's warrant,  to  conduct  the  prisoners  to  the 
governor  of  Pendennis  Castle,  Captain  Fox,  if  he 
was  at  home,  if  not  to  convey  them  to  Launceston 


IN  England's  worst  prison 


75 


Jail.  As  Captain  Fox  was  not  at  home  at  the 
time,  the  Friends  had  to  go  on,  with  their  royster- 
ing  escort,  to  Launceston.  On  their  journey 
thither  they  met  General  Desborough,  a  brother- 
in-law  of  Cromwell,  who,  under  the  Protector,  ad- 
ministered the  government  in  the  six  western 
counties.  One  of  Desborough's  officers  at  once 
recognized  Fox  and  called  out  to  him,  "Oh,  Mr. 
Fox,  what  are  you  doing  here ? "  "I  am  a  prisoner," 
the  latter  replied.  "Alack,"  said  the  officer,  "for 
what?"  Fox  explained  how  he  and  his  party  had 
been  arrested  while  engaged  in  religious  work,  and 
at  once  the  military  man  offered  to  speak  to 
Desborough  about  it  and  get  him  freed.  The  re- 
lease might  easily  have  been  secured  had  not  a 
discussion  arisen  about  the  light  of  Christ  within. 
Desborough  said  he  did  not  believe  in  it  and  spoke 
strongly  against  it.  That  was  too  much  for  Fox  to 
stand  and  he  reproved  the  great  man,  who  forth- 
with told  the  soldiers  to  proceed  to  Launceston. 

The  little  party  had  another  miserable  night  in 
the  inn  at  Bodmin,  not  far  from  their  destination. 
The  outrageous  captain  of  the  escort,  Keat,  under- 
took to  put  Fox  in  a  room  with  a  raving  lunatic, 
who  had  "a  naked  rapier  in  his  hand."  "What 
now,  Keat,"  Fox  cried  out,  "what  trick  hast  thou 
played  now,  to  put  me  into  a  room  where  there  is 
a  man  with  his  naked  rapier?"  "Oh,"  said  he, 
"pray  hold  your  tongue,  for  if  you  speak  to  this 


76 


THE  STORY  OF  GEORGE  FOX 


man  we  cannot  all  rule  him,  he  is  so  devilish." 
He  finally  got  another  room,  away  from  the  mad- 
man, but  the  "hard  and  darkened"  soldiers  drank 
and  roared  all  night  so  that  there  was  no  sleep  for 
the  weary  prisoners. 

The  next  morning  they  were  brought  to  the 
terrible  Cornwall  Jail  at  Launceston  where  they 
were  to  spend  the  following  eight  months — from 
midwinter  to  early  autumn.  During  the  first 
nine  weeks  they  were  decently  treated  while  they 
were  waiting  for  their  trial  to  come  off.  At  about 
the  spring  equinox  Chief  Justice  Glyn  came  to 
Launceston  for  the  trial  of  the  prisoners.  The  ru- 
mor had  spread  that  Fox  was  likely  to  be  hung  and 
a  multitude  of  people  poured  into  the  little  town 
to  see  the  famous  Quaker  go  by.  As  the  pikemen 
took  Fox  through  the  streets  to  the  court  room 
they  had  "much  ado"  to  get  through  the  crowd 
which  packed  the  town.  As  the  three  Quakers  with 
their  hats  on  their  heads  filed  into  the  room  be- 
fore the  bewigged  Chief  Justice,  Fox  "was  moved 
to  say,  'Peace  be  amongst  you!'"  Judge  Glyn 
with  a  quizzical  look  turned  to  the  jailer  and  said, 
"What  be  these  you  have  brought  here  into 
court?"  "Prisoners,  my  Lord,"  said  the  jailer. 
"Why  do  you  not  put  off  your  hats?"  the  Judge 
asked  the  prisoners.  No  answer.  "Put  off  your 
hats."  Still  neither  answer  nor  action.  "The 
court  commands  you  to  put  off  your  hats,"  sternly 


IN  England's  worst  prison 


77 


said  the  judge.  Then  Fox  quietly  said,  "Where 
did  ever  any  magistrate,  king  or  judge,  from  Moses 
to  Daniel,  command  any  to  put  off  their  hats, 
when  they  came  before  them  in  their  courts?  And 
if  the  law  of  England  doth  command  any  such 
thing,  show  me  that  law  either  written  or  printed." 
"Take  him  away,"  shouted  the  Chief  Justice,  "I'll 
jfirk  him,"  i.  e.,  "trounce  him." 

The  prisoners  were  taken  out  and  put  in  with 
the  thieves  who  were  awaiting  trial.  Soon  the 
judge  had  them  brought  back  into  the  court  room. 
"Come,"  said  the  judge,  "when  had  they  hats 
from  Moses  to  Daniel?  Come,  answer  me.  I 
have  you  fast  now."  Fox  replied,  "Thou  mayest 
read  in  the  third  of  Daniel  that  the  three  children 
were  cast  into  the  fiery  furnace  by  Nebuchad- 
nezzar's command,  with  their  coats,  their  hose  and 
their  hats  on!"  "Take  them  away!"  shouted  the 
judge.  All  day  the  strange  proceedings  went  on 
in  court.  Absurd  charges,  which  apparently  no- 
body believed,  were  made  against  Fox  by  Major 
Ceely.  Again  and  again  the  hat-issue  arose.  Once 
the  jailer  took  off  the  hats  and  handed  them  to 
the  prisoners  who  at  once  put  them  on  again. 
Finally  the  three  men  were  fined  £13,  6s.  8d.  for 
"contempt  of  court,"  and  ordered  to  be  imprisoned 
until  the  fine  should  be  paid — which  anybody 
might  know  would  be  never. 

Up  till  the  time  of  the  trial  the  three  Quakers 


78 


THE  STORY  OF  GEORGE  FOX 


had  been  paying  the  jailer  seven  shilHngs  a  week 
apiece  for  their  board  and  seven  shilHngs  for  the 
keep  of  their  horses.  After  the  trial  was  over  they 
refused  to  continue  this  payment.  Whereupon 
the  jailer,  who  was  himself  a  criminal  and  bore 
the  mark  of  a  branding  iron,  became  fierce  with 
anger  and  thrust  them  into  the  appalling  dungeon 
called  "Doomsdale."  Fox's  account  of  this  dun- 
geon is  too  awful  to  copy  for  my  readers.  One 
wonders  how  any  person  could  have  lived  in  it 
at  all.  In  fact  few  ever  did  come  out  of  it  alive. 
It  was  generally  believed  in  the  prison  that  this 
dungeon  was  haunted  by  the  ghosts  of  those  who 
had  died  in  it,  and  the  jailer  and  his  wild  friends 
tried  to  scare  Fox  with  this  story  of  the  ghosts. 
But  he  did  not  take  fright  much  more  easily  than 
Luther  did  at  the  devils  in  Worms.  "  I  told  them," 
Fox  says,  "  that  if  all  the  spirits  and  devils  in  hell 
were  there,  I  was  over  them  in  the  power  of  God 
and  feared  no  such  thing!"  We  may  smile  at 
Fox's  refusal  to  take  off  his  hat  in  court,  which 
seems  to  a  modern  person  a  harmless  courtesy,  but 
nobody  can  well  miss  the  brave  and  heroic  spirit 
in  this  man,  who  looked  upon  "hat-honor"  as 
downright  disobedience  to  God. 

About  midsummer  an  order  of  the  court  was 
issued  declaring  that  the  door  of  Doomsdale  should 
be  opened  and  that  the  prisoners  should  have 
permission  to  clean  up  the  abominable  dungeon 


IN  England's  worst  prison 


79 


and  to  buy  their  food  in  the  town.  A  saintly- 
woman,  named  Ann  Downer,  came  down  to  Laun- 
ceston  from  London  to  cook  their  food  and  to 
give  them  what  human  service  was  allowed  in  the 
existing  prison  system.  Another  manifestation  of 
love  was  given  which  deeply  touched  Fox's  heart. 
Humphrey  Norton  went  to  Cromwell  and  offered 
to  go  to  Doomsdale  and  suffer  there  in  place  of 
Fox  if  the  Protector  would  give  him  permission 
to  do  it.  Of  course  this  could  not  be  granted,  but 
the  request  made  a  deep  impression  on  Oliver 
Cromwell.  He  turned  to  his  courtiers  and  said, 
"Which  of  you  would  do  so  much  for  me,  if  I 
were  in  the  same  condition?"  Hugh  Peters,  the 
famous  preacher,  chaplain  to  the  Protector,  told 
Cromwell  that  there  was  no  better  way  to  spread 
the  teachings  of  the  Quakers  than  to  keep  George 
Fox  shut  up  in  Launceston  Castle.  The  net  result 
was  that  an  order  came  from  Whitehall  to  Major 
General  Desborough  that  some  way  must  be 
found  to  free  the  Quakers  who  were  in  Launceston 
Jail. 


CHAPTER  IX 


ANOTHER  KIND  OF  CATASTROPHE 

It  took  some  time  to  get  George  Fox  out  of 
Launceston  Jail  even  after  General  Desborough 
received  the  request  from  London  to  have  him 
set  at  liberty.  In  the  first  place  Desborough 
undertook  to  secure  a  promise  from  Fox  that  he 
would  go  home  and  not  preach  any  more.  He 
would  of  course  have  spent  the  rest  of  his  days  in 
Doomsdale  before  he  would  make  that  promise. 
Next,  there  was  the  problem  of  the  unpaid  fees 
to  the  jailer.  A  Puritan  named  Colonel  Bennett 
held  a  lease  of  the  jail  and  he  received  a  certain 
proportion  of  the  fees  which  the  jailer  squeezed 
out  of  the  wretched  prisoners  who  were  put  into 
Launceston  Castle.  Fox  and  his  friends  contended 
that  they  were  "innocent  sufferers"  and  could  pay 
no  fees  for  the  privilege  of  staying  in  Doomsdale! 
On  this  point,  again.  Fox  was  ready  to  stand  out 
forever,  but  the  authorities  finally  yielded  and  let 
the  prisoners  go,  without  any  conditions,  on  the 
13th  of  September,  1656.  One  very  amusing 
episode  which  occurred  during  this  imprisonment 
will  serve  to  show  the  power  which  Fox,  even  when 
in  a  filthy  prison  where  the  jailer  called  him  "a 

80 


IN  England's  worst  prison 


8i 


hatchet-faced  dog,"  exercised  on  men.  A  certain 
Colonel  Rouse,  with  a  large  company  of  attendants 
and  companions,  came  to  Launceston  to  see  Fox. 
"He  was  as  full  of  words  and  talk,"  Fox  says,  "as 
ever  I  heard  in  my  life,  so  that  there  was  no  speak- 
ing to  him.  At  length  I  asked  him  whether  he 
had  ever  been  at  school."  "At  school!"  said  he, 
"yes."  "At  school!"  said  the  soldiers,  "doth  he 
say  so  to  our  colonel  who  is  a  scholar?"  "Then," 
said  Fox,  "if  he  be  a  scholar  he  ought  to  know 
what  belongs  to  questions  and  answers,  he  should 
be  still  and  receive  answers  to  what  he  hath  said." 
"Then,"  the  account  continues,  "I  was  moved  to 
speak  the  word  of  life  to  him  in  God's  dreadful 
power;  which  came  so  over  him  that  he  could  not 
open  his  mouth:  his  face  swelled  and  was  red  like 
a  turkey;  his  lips  moved  and  he  mumbled  some- 
thing; but  the  people  thought  he  would  have  fallen 
down.  I  stepped  to  him  and  he  said  he  was  never 
so  in  his  life  before:  for  the  Lord's  power  stopped 
the  evil  power  in  him;  so  that  he  was  almost 
choked.  The  man  was  ever  after  very  loving  to 
Friends,  and  not  so  full  of  airy  words  to  us.  The 
Lord's  power  came  over  him,  and  the  rest  that 
were  with  him." 

It  was  at  this  time,  while  Fox  was  in  Launceston, 
that  the  "Fifth-Monarchy-men,"  as  they  were 
called,  were  going  about  in  England  trying  to  con- 
vince the  people  that  Christ  was  going  to  come  that 


82 


THE  STORY  OF  GEORGE  FOX 


year  and  set  up  His  thousand-year  reign  on  the 
earth.  There  had  been,  they  declared,  four  great 
world-kingdoms  and  now  Christ's  reign  would  end 
them  all  and  begin  the  Fifth  and  last  kingdom. 
Fox  told  them  they  were  looking  in  the  wrong 
place  for  Christ  and  His  kingdom.  They  thought 
it  was  to  be  an  outward  kingdom,  like  Caesar's, 
and  that  Christ  would  come  as  a  monarch,  like 
Charlemagne,  but  Fox  told  them  that  Christ  had 
come  already  and  was  now  here.  He  comes  as  a 
divine  and  heavenly  presence  to  the  souls  of  men 
and  wishes  to  rule  their  lives  and  to  reign  in  their 
hearts.  His  kingdom  comes  as  fast  as  people 
learn  to  live  His  way  and  to  do  His  will  and  to 
let  His  spirit  conquer  the  evil  in  them  and  raise 
up  the  good.  Nobody  will  ever  find  Him  if  they 
look  for  Him  in  the  sky  or  if  they  expect  to  see 
Him  sitting  on  a  throne  in  some  capital  city,  like 
London. 

As  soon  as  the  doors  of  Launceston  Castle  were 
opened  to  them  the  three  prisoners  who  had 
suffered  so  unmercifully  for  nine  dreary  months 
rode  away  on  their  horses,  free  men  and  full  of 
joy.  A  worse  disaster,  however,  than  Doomsdale 
was  awaiting  Fox.  That  was  the  "  fall "  of  his  old 
friend  and  fellow-laborer,  James  Nayler.  As  the 
three  men  continued  their  journey  they  came  to 
Exeter,  and  here  they  found  James  Nayler  and 
many  other  Friends  in  prison.    Fox  went  to  the 


IN  England's  worst  prison 


83 


prison  to  visit  his  friends  and  he  at  once  saw  that 
James  was  out  of  the  way  and  going  wrong;  as 
Fox  puts  it,  "he  had  run  out  into  imaginations." 
He  had  formed  wild  ideas,  was  misguided,  and 
was  dreaming  that  he  himself  was  to  be  treated 
as  a  most  exalted  person.  Fox  was  as  gentle  as 
a  mother  to  those  who  worked  and  suffered  with 
him,  but  he  could  also  be  like  a  flame  of  fire  toward 
those  who  were  undermining  the  great  work  which 
he  believed  God  had  sent  him  to  do  in  the  world. 
He  plainly  told  his  old  friend  that  he  was  off  the 
track  and  was  turning  against  the  power  of  God. 
He  showed  him  how  dangerous  was  the  path  of 
pride  and  how  awful  it  was  to  turn  light  into  dark- 
ness, but  the  frank,  well-meant  words  of  warning 
fell  on  deaf  ears.  Nayler  tried  to  make  a  show  of 
love  and  would  have  kissed  Fox,  but  the  latter 
would  receive  no  sham  kisses  from  one  whose 
spirit  was  plainly  wrong.  "James,"  he  said, 
"it  will  be  harder  for  thee  to  get  down  thy  rude 
company  [of  followers]  than  it  was  for  thee  to  set 
them  up." 

Poor  Nayler  was  not  altogether  to  blame  for 
the  wild,  wrong  course  he  took.  He  had,  as  Fox 
said,  "run  out  into  imaginations."  He  had  be- 
come temporarily  insane.  The  strain  of  his  work, 
the  terrible  persecutions  he  had  undergone,  the 
dreadful  prison  experiences,  and  the  unrestrained 
imaginations  and  expectations  prevailing  around 


84 


THE  STORY  OF  GEORGE  FOX 


him,  had  all  gone  to  his  head  and  set  it  into  sad 
disorder.  Soon  after  Fox  left  him  at  Exeter,  he 
was  freed  from  prison  and  went  to  Bristol.  Here 
he  allowed  his  misguided  followers  to  get  up  a 
"triumphal  procession,"  while  he  imitated  Christ 
riding  into  Jerusalem.  The  little  party  of  eight, 
surrounding  Nayler  who  rode  on  horseback,  sang, 
"Holy,  holy,  holy.  Lord  God  of  Israel."  Through 
the  rain  and  mud,  the  women  spreading  their 
garments  in  the  way,  the  strange,  mad  group 
trudged  on  into  Bristol,  where  they  were  all  ar- 
rested and  thrust  into  prison.  They  all  were  sub- 
jects for  an  insane  asylum  and  they  all  needed  the 
care  of  a  skillful  physician  of  the  mind,  but  they  got 
instead  the  only  kind  of  treatment  that  England 
knew  how  to  give  such  people  in  the  seventeenth 
century.  They  called  them  "blasphemers"  and 
they  dealt  with  them  as  criminals  to  be  fright- 
fully punished.  After  months  of  investigation 
and  trial  James  Nayler  received  his  awful  sentence. 
He  was  to  be  set  in  the  pillory  in  the  Palace  yard 
at  Westminster  for  two  hours,  and  then  be  whipped 
by  the  hangman  through  the  streets  for  two  hours 
more.  Three  days  later  he  was  to  stand  again 
in  the  pillory  from  eleven  to  one,  when  his  tongue 
was  to  be  bored  through  with  a  hot  iron  and  the 
letter  B  (for  blasphemer)  was  to  be  branded  with 
a  burning  iron  on  his  forehead.  Then  he  was  to 
be  taken  to  Bristol  and  made  to  ride  through  the 


ANOTHER  KIND  OF  CATASTROPHE  85 


city  on  horseback,  with  his  face  backward,  and 
be  whipped  in  the  market  place.  Finally,  he  was 
to  be  imprisoned  in  Bridewell,  London,  until 
Parliament  should  vote  to  release  him,  his  im- 
prisonment to  be  in  solitary  confinement,  at  hard 
labor,  without  the  use  of  pen,  ink  or  paper.  As 
Nayler  listened  to  the  appalling  sentence,  while 
the  Speaker  of  the  House  of  Commons  read  it  to 
him,  he  said,  "God  has  given  me  a  body:  God 
will,  I  hope,  give  me  a  spirit  to  endure  it.  The 
Lord  lay  not  these  things  to  your  charge." 

Without  complaining  the  poor  victim  took  his 
punishment.  "He  shrinked  a  little  when  the  iron 
came  upon  his  forehead,"  but  though  the  body 
might  wince  the  old-time  spirit  of  the  man  re- 
turned and  rose  to  meet  the  awful  crisis.  He  was 
kept  in  solitary  confinement  for  three  years  and 
then  Parliament — the  "Rump" — voted  his  re- 
lease. As  soon  as  he  could  do  so,  after  his  release 
from  confinement,  Nayler  went  to  find  George 
Fox  and  to  ask  his  forgiveness  for  the  disgrace 
and  trouble  which  his  deeds  and  acts  had  brought 
upon  the  Society  of  Friends.  Fox  himself  was 
very  ill  and  broken  at  this  time  and  could  not  see 
him,  and  in  "a  quiet  spirit"  and  noble  frame  of 
mind,  the  heavily  disciplined  man  waited  his 
time  for  reconciliation.  The  reconciliation  came 
in  London  a  little  later,  when  "a  healing  spirit 
did  abound  that  day."    James  Nayler  made  a 


86 


THE  STORY  OF  GEORGE  FOX 


public  confession  of  his  errors  and  mistakes.  There 
were  few  dry  eyes  as  the  Friends  gathered  there  in 
the  London  meeting  Hstened  to  the  man  who  had 
suffered  so  much  for  his  blunders.  George  Fox 
was  there  and  he  seemed  "clothed  with  precious 
wisdom,"  as  he  "healed  up  the  breach"  between 
himself  and  his  friend. 

Only  a  few  months  of  life  remained  after  this 
for  James  Nayler.  He  started  in  the  autumn 
days  of  the  Restoration  year,  1660,  to  walk  from 
London  to  his  home  at  Wakefield  in  Yorkshire. 
He  was  weak  and  ill — too  weak  and  ill  to  journey 
alone  on  foot,  but  he  persevered  by  the  force  of  his 
unconquered  spirit.  He  sat  long  periods  at  a  time 
by  the  roadside,  lost  in  meditation,  thinking  of  the 
true  home  and  the  real  country  he  was  soon  to 
see  when  all  his  pains  and  trials  would  be  over. 
Robbers  attacked  him  near  Huntingdon  and  left 
the  poor  broken  man  bound.  He  was  found  by 
kind  friends  who  cared  for  him  tenderly  until  his 
spirit  slipped  away  "to  where  beyond  these  voices 
there  is  peace." 

About  two  hours  before  he  died  James  Nayler 
spoke  his  farewell  message,  which  is  one  of  the 
most  beautiful  testimonies  that  any  erring,  re- 
pentant, much-forgiven  man  has  left  behind  him. 
It  is  as  follows: 

"There  is  a  spirit  which  I  feel  that  delights  to 
do  no  evil  nor  to  revenge  any  wrong,  but  delights 


ANOTHER  KIND  OF  CATASTROPHE  87 


to  endure  all  things,  in  hope  to  enjoy  its  own  in 
the  end.  Its  hope  is  to  outlive  all  wrath  and 
contention,  and  to  weary  out  all  exaltation  and 
cruelty,  or  whatever  is  of  a  nature  contrary  to  it- 
self. It  sees  to  the  end  of  all  temptations.  As  it 
bears  no  evil  in  itself,  so  it  conceives  none  in 
thoughts  to  any  other.  If  it  be  betrayed,  it  bears 
it,  for  its  crown  is  meekness,  its  life  is  everlasting 
love  unfeigned;  and  takes  its  kingdom  with  en- 
treaty and  not  with  contention,  and  keeps  it  by 
lowliness  of  mind.  In  God  alone  it  can  rejoice, 
though  none  else  regard  it,  or  can  own  its  life. 
It's  conceived  in  sorrow,  and  brought  forth  without 
any  to  pity  it,  nor  doth  it  murmur  at  grief  and 
oppression.  It  never  rejoiceth  but  through  suf- 
ferings: for  with  the  world's  joy  it  is  murdered. 
I  found  it  alone,  being  forsaken.  I  have  fellowship 
therein  with  them  who  lived  in  dens  and  desolate 
places  in  the  earth,  who  through  death  obtained 
this  resurrection  and  eternal  holy  life. " 

This  tragic  experience  had  a  great  effect  upon 
the  later  life  of  George  Fox.  It  made  him  very 
much  more  careful  to  explain  what  he  meant  by  the 
light  and  life  of  Christ  in  the  soul.  He  saw  now 
how  easy  it  was  for  unbalanced  people  to  push  his 
idea  too  far  and  to  make  impossible  claims  about 
themselves.  It  was  a  hard  and  bitter  lesson,  but  he 
thoroughly  learned  it,  and  from  this  point  onward 
he  was  restrained  and  cautious  in  his  expressions. 


88 


THE   STORY  OF  GEORGE  FOX 


We  must  now  go  back  to  the  period  following 
the  release  from  Launceston.  Fox  went  steadily 
on  with  his  travels,  holding  meetings,  many  of 
which  were  attended  by  great  crowds  of  people, 
sometimes  by  thousands.  Coming  to  London  in 
October,  1656,  he  had  another  remarkable  talk 
with  Oliver  Cromwell.  Near  Hyde  Park  he  saw  a 
great  concourse  of  people,  and  looking  more  care- 
fully he  espied  the  Protector  in  the  midst  of  the 
throng.  He  rode  straight  up  to  the  side  of  the 
Protector's  coach.  Some  of  the  lifeguards  started 
to  put  Fox  away,  but  Cromwell  at  once  recognized 
him  and  forbade  the  guards  to  disturb  him.  "So," 
Fox  says,  "  I  rode  by  him  [i.  e.,  by  his  side]  declaring 
unto  him  what  the  Lord  gave  me  to  say  unto  him 
of  his  condition  and  of  the  sufferings  of  Friends 
in  the  nation,  and  how  contrary  to  Christ  this 
persecution  was  and  to  the  apostles  and  Christian- 
ity, and  so  I  rode  by  his  coach  till  we  came  to 
James'  Park  gate,  and  he  desired  me  to  come  to 
his  house." 

The  next  day  Cromwell  told  one  of  his  wife's 
maids,  Mary  Saunders,  a  Quakeress,  that  he  had 
some  good  news  for  her.  "George  Fox  has  come 
to  town,"  he  said,  "and  he  rode  from  Hyde  Park 
to  James'  Park  by  my  side."  A  little  later.  Fox 
availed  himself  of  Cromwell's  invitation  to  his 
house,  and  he  went  with  Edward  Pyott,  his  prison- 
companion,  to  Whitehall.    Once  more  Fox  urged 


ANOTHER  KIND  OF  CATASTROPHE 


89 


upon  the  Protector  the  release  of  Friends  who  were 
in  prison  and  the  cessation  of  reHgious  persecution. 
Then  he  directed  Cromwell  to  the  light  of  Christ 
in  his  own  heart,  but  the  Protector  had  just  been 
having  an  interview  with  the  famous  Vice-Chan- 
cellor  of  Oxford,  Dr.  Owen,  a  man  very  much 
opposed  to  the  Quaker  teaching,  and  he  spoke 
against  the  light  and  belittled  it.  This  attitude 
aroused  Fox,  as  it  always  did,  and  he  discussed 
the  subject  with  much  fervor  and  earnestness. 
"The  power  of  the  Lord,"  Fox  says,  "rose  up  in 
me  and  I  was  moved  to  bid  him  lay  down  his 
crown  at  the  feet  of  Jesus."  Fox  was  standing 
by  a  table  and  Cromwell  came  over  and  sat  on 
the  edge  of  the  table  by  him  and  they  went  on 
discussing  the  light  of  Christ  but  without  getting 
any  closer  together  in  their  religious  views.  There 
can,  however,  be  no  doubt  from  the  accounts  that 
Cromwell  had  a  deep  respect  for  Fox  and  it  would 
appear  that  he  thought  of  him  quite  in  the  light  of 
a  religious  prophet.  We  shall  hear  more  at  a  later 
critical  moment  about  laying  the  "crown"  at  the 
feet  of  Jesus! 

After  an  extensive  journey  through  the  counties 
as  far  north  as  Yorkshire,  with  much  success  in 
gaining  convincements  and  with  some  hairbreadth 
escapes,  Fox  went  forth  to  break  new  ground  in 
Wales  and  Scotland.  He  had  a  powerful  helper 
for  the  Welsh  campaign  in  John  ap  John,  a  fervent 


9° 


THE  STORY  OF  GEORGE  FOX 


and  faithful  Welshman,  who  had  been  "convinced" 
at  Swarthmore  in  1653.  Great  numbers  of  people 
in  Wales  were  brought  into  the  Society  through 
this  visit  of  1657,  and  later  on  they  migrated  almost 
in  a  body  to  Pennsylvania,  when  William  Penn 
began  his  "holy  experiment"  in  that  great  colony. 
A  really  wonderful  meeting  was  held  by  the  band 
of  Quaker  travelers  in  Radnorshire  where  the 
people  lay  in  mighty  throngs,  "like  a  leaguer." 
"I  had  a  great  travail  on  me,"  Fox  says,  "for  the 
salvation  of  the  people.  And  so  I  passed  to  the 
meeting  and  stood  atop  of  a  chair  about  three 
hours,  sometimes  leaned  my  hand  on  a  man's  head, 
and  stood  a  pretty  while  before  I  began  to  speak. 
Many  people  sat  on  horseback:  and  at  last  I  felt 
the  power  of  the  Lord  went  over  all,  and  the  Lord's 
everlasting  life  and  truth  shined  over  all,  and  the 
Scriptures  were  opened  to  them."  The  people 
seem  to  have  been  deeply  impressed  and  "they 
turned  to  the  Lord,"  as  Fox  puts  it. 

The  journey  in  Scotland  was  not  so  rich  in 
results  as  was  the  one  through  Wales.  The  Scotch 
people  had  accepted  the  religious  system  of  John 
Calvin  as  interpreted  to  them  by  John  Knox  and 
this  system  was  very  unlike  the  Quaker  conception 
of  religion.  Fox  found  few  persons  there  eager 
for  his  teaching  or  responsive  to  it.  They  had  not 
been  "prepared"  for  such  ideas  and  they  did  not 
give  him  the  welcome  which  he  found  in  many 


ANOTHER  KIND  OF  CATASTROPHE  9I 


places.  And  yet  he  says,  "When  I  first  set  my 
horse's  feet  upon  Scottish  ground,  I  felt  the  seed 
of  God  to  sparkle  about  me,  like  innumerable 
sparks  of  fire."  He  adds,  however,  "There  is 
abundance  of  thick,  cloddy  earth  of  hypocrisy  and 
falseness  above,  and  a  briery,  brambly  nature, 
which  is  to  be  burnt  up  with  God's  Word,  and 
ploughed  up  with  His  spiritual  plough,  before  God's 
Seed  brings  forth  heavenly  and  spiritual  fruit  to 
His  glory.  But  the  husbandman  is  to  wait  in 
patience." 

Some  of  the  very  choicest  spirits  in  the  Society 
of  Friends  came  from  Scotland  and  there  was 
undoubtedly  "a  seed  of  God"  there,  but  the  Pres- 
byterian ministers  were  determined  to  make  life 
as  uncomfortable  as  possible  for  Fox  while  he  was 
trying  to  find  his  scattered  "seed."  He  was 
ordered  to  appear  before  the  Council  in  Edinburgh. 
As  he  entered  the  room  his  hat  was  removed  by 
the  doorkeeper  and  hung  up  until  he  came  out. 
He  stood  for  a  little  while  before  the  Council  and 
as  no  one  said  anything  to  him,  he  was  "moved 
of  the  Lord"  to  say  "Peace  be  amongst  you;  wait 
in  the  fear  of  the  Lord,  that  ye  may  receive  His 
wisdom  from  above  by  which  all  things  were  made 
and  created;  that  by  it  ye  may  all  be  ordered, 
and  may  order  all  things  under  your  hand  to  God's 
glory."  The  Council  asked  what  business  he  had 
in  Scotland.    "I  came  to  visit  the  seed  of  God," 


92 


THE  STORY  OF  GEORGE  FOX 


he  told  them.  "You  must  depart  the  nation  of 
Scotland  by  this  day  sen-night,"  i.  e.,  in  a  week, 
the  Council  ordered.  He  paid  no  attention  to  the 
order,  but  went  on  with  his  work  of  visiting  "  the 
seed."  He  came  back  to  Edinburgh,  passed  the 
sentries,  rode  up  the  street  to  the  market  place 
and  out  at  the  gate.  "We  rode  as  it  were,"  he 
says,  "  against  the  cannon's  mouth,  or  the  sword's 
point,  but  the  Lord's  power  and  immediate  hand 
carried  us  over  the  heads  of  all!" 


CHAPTER  X 


THE   END  OF  THE   COMMONWEALTH  ERA 

Great  changes  in  the  government  and  in  the 
hfe  of  England  were  now  coming  on.  Oliver  Crom- 
well, the  Lord  Protector,  died  on  the  3rd  of  Sep- 
tember, 1658,  and  a  period  of  uncertainty  and 
perplexity  followed  the  great  man's  departure. 
George  Fox  appears  to  have  followed  political  and 
public  events  with  a  keen  and  watchful  eye  and 
to  have  entered  deeply  into  the  struggle  through 
which  the  nation  was  passing.  In  the  spring  of 
1657  there  was  a  rumor  afloat  that  Cromwell  was 
to  be  crowned  king.  On  the  25th  of  March  of 
that  year  Parliament  decided  to  offer  the  crown 
to  him  and  to  request  him  to  take  the  office  and  the 
title.  As  soon  as  Fox  heard  of  it  he  went  at  once 
to  warn  Cromwell  against  accepting  the  kingship. 
"I  met  him,"  the  Journal  says,  "in  the  Park,  and 
told  him  that  they  that  would  put  a  crown  on  him 
would  take  away  his  life,  and  he  asked  me.  What 
did  I  say?  And  I  said  again.  They  that  sought 
to  put  a  crown  on  him  would  take  away  his  life 
and  I  bid  him  mind  the  crown  that  was  immortal, 
and  he  thanked  me  and  bid  me  go  to  his  house. 
And  then  I  was  moved  to  write  to  him  and  told 

93 


94 


THE   STORY  OF  GEORGE  FOX 


him  how  he  would  ruin  his  family  and  posterity 
and  bring  darkness  upon  the  nation  if  he  did  so." 
On  the  3rd  of  April  and  finally  emphatically  on  the 
8th  of  April,  Cromwell  refused  to  be  made  king. 

Fox  at  this  time  wrote  many  papers  to  the 
Protector  on  a  variety  of  subjects.  One  of  the 
most  interesting  of  his  letters  was  the  one  he 
wrote  to  Cromwell's  beloved  daughter,  Lady 
Elizabeth  Claypole,  when  she  lay  ill  with  an  in- 
curable disease.  "Friend,"  the  letter  begins  to 
the  great  Lady  who  had  herself  been  a  "seeker," 
"be  still  and  cool  in  thy  own  mind  and  spirit 
from  thy  own  thoughts,  and  then  thou  wilt  feel 
the  principle  of  God  to  turn  thy  mind  to  the  Lord, 
from  whom  cometh  life,  whereby  thou  mayest 
receive  His  strength  and  power  to  allay  all  bluster- 
ings,  storms  and  tempests,"  and  the  letter  ends 
with  these  noble  words:  "And  so  thou  shalt  come 
to  know  the  Seed  of  God,  which  is  the  heir  of  the 
promise  of  God,  and  of  the  world  which  hath  no 
end.  .  .  .  Ye  shall  receive  the  power  of  an  end- 
less life,  the  power  of  God  which  is  immortal; 
which  brings  the  immortal  soul  up  to  the  immortal 
God,  in  whom  it  doth  rejoice.  So  in  the  name  of 
the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  God  Almighty  strengthen 
thee.  G.  F."  We  are  told  that  the  letter  "staid 
the  mind"  of  Lady  Elizabeth  and  was  afterwards 
used  to  "settle  the  minds"  of  others  who  were 
passing  through  suffering. 


THE  END  OF  THE  COMMONWEALTH  ERA  95 


One  more  meeting  occurred  between  Fox  and 
the  Protector.  It  was  about  the  middle  of  August, 
two  weeks  before  Cromwell's  death.  Fox  says, 
"I  met  him  riding  into  Hampton  Court  Park,  and 
before  I  came  at  him,  he  was  riding  at  the  head 
of  his  life-guards,  and  I  saw  and  felt  a  waft  of 
death  go  forth  against  him,  so  that  he  looked  like 
a  dead  man."  Fox  spoke  to  him  about  the  suffer- 
ings of  Friends,  great  numbers  of  whom  were  at 
this  time  lying  in  the  prisons  of  England.  Crom- 
well, as  usual,  was  cordial  and  friendly  to  him  and 
invited  him  to  the  Palace.  He  went  the  next 
day,  but  found  the  Protector  too  ill  to  see  him. 
"So,"  Fox  writes,  "I  passed  away  and  saw  him 
no  more."  Once  more  unexpectedly  he  did  see 
him,  or  at  least  his  body,  for  when  Charles  II.  was 
safely  established  on  the  throne,  Cromwell's  body, 
with  the  mighty  spirit  gone  out  of  it,  was  dug  up 
from  its  grave  and  hung  on  the  gallows  at  Tyburn, 
and  Fox  says:  "I  saw  him  hanging  there." 

In  the  period  of  disturbance,  distress  and  al- 
most anarchy  which  followed  the  passing  of  the 
great  man,  no  one  knew  what  the  future  had  for 
England.  The  nation  was  "rocking,"  the  various 
parties,  as  Fox  says,  were  "plucking  each  other 
to  pieces,"  the  old  order  was  changing,  yielding 
place  to  new,  and  the  stoutest  hearts  were  full 
of  foreboding.  For  George  Fox  it  was  a  time  of 
unusual  travail  of  spirit.    He  passed  through  a 


96 


THE   STORY  OF  GEORGE  FOX 


period  of  serious  illness  and  mental  trouble,  such 
as  he  had  not  known  since  the  days  of  his  early- 
quest  for  light.  He  lay  for  some  weeks  only 
partly  conscious  at  a  Friend's  house  in  Reading. 
His  body  underwent  a  profound  change,  his 
countenance  was  altered,  and  many  thought  he 
would  not  come  back  to  life  and  health  again. 
As  he  lay  in  his  strange  borderland  state,  he 
seemed  to  have  a  sight  of  what  was  coming  to  pass 
and  he  felt  that  he  could  read  what  was  passing 
in  the  minds  of  those  around  him.  He  had,  too, 
a  sight  and  sense  of  the  restoration  of  King 
Charles.  Gradually  he  came  back  once  more 
to  health  and  normal  condition  again.  "The 
Lord  preserved  me,"  he  says,  "by  His  power 
and  spirit  through  and  over  all,  and  in  His  power 
I  came  to  London  again. "  In  a  short  time  he 
was  ready  for  hard  journeys,  heavy  work,  great 
meetings  and  the  stiff  persecution  which  was  an 
almost  continuous  part  of  his  life. 

On  the  8th  of  May,  1660,  Charles  Stuart  was 
proclaimed  king  and  on  the  29th  of  the  same 
month  he  entered  London.  Already  on  the  4th 
of  the  preceding  April  Charles  had  issued  his 
famous  declaration  on  the  subject  of  liberty  of 
conscience,  called  the  Declaration  of  Breda,  from 
the  Dutch  city  where  it  was  set  forth.  It  said: 
"We  do  declare  a  liberty  to  tender  consciences, 
and  that  no  man  shall  be  disquieted  or  called  in 


THE  END  OF  THE  COMMONWEALTH  ERA  97 


question  for  differences  of  opinion  in  matters  of  \ 
religion,  which  do  not  disturb  the  peace  of  the  king-  ' 
dom."   George  Fox  and  his  friends  thought  when 
they  read  these  fine  words  that  their  troubles 
were  over  and  that  now  they  could  hold  their 
precious  truth  in  peace.    They  were,  however,  / 
to  be  sadly  disappointed. 

Already  before  Cromwell's  death  George  Fox 
had  begun  holding  great  general  meetings  once 
or  twice  a  year  for  the  purpose  of  spreading  his 
teaching  and  for  organizing  the  movement  which 
he  had  started.  Immense  crowds  of  people  came 
to  these  general  meetings.  One  was  held  at  Balby 
in  Yorkshire  in  the  autumn  of  1656.  Another 
of  the  same  sort  was  held  at  Skipton,  also  in  York- 
shire, in  1657,  and  these  Skipton  general  meetings 
were  held  every  year  for  some  time.  A  great 
general  meeting,  "for  the  whole  nation,"  was  held 
at  Luton  in  Bedfordshire,  "at  John  Crook's 
house,"  in  May  of  1658.  It  lasted  three  days 
and  was  "attended  by  three  or  four  thousand 
people."  The  inns  were  overcrowded  and  the 
visitors  overflowed  into  the  nearby  towns.  "A 
glorious  meeting  it  was,"  Fox  says,  "and  the 
everlasting  gospel  was  preached,  and  many  re- 
ceived it,  .  .  .  which  gospel  brought  life  and  im- 
mortality to  light  in  them  and  shined  over  all." 

Fox  set  forth  his  religious  truth  to  the  great 
concourse  of  people  in  two  sermons.    In  the  first 


98 


THE  STORY  OF  GEORGE  FOX 


one  he  spoke  specially  to  those  who  had  not  yet 
accepted  his  teaching  and  in  this  he  expounded 
his  ideas  about  God  and  Christ  and  the  light  in 
the  soul  of  man.  In  the  second  sermon,  he  gave 
much  wise  advice  to  his  followers  and  especially 
to  those  who  were  accustomed  to  preach.  He 
urged  them  to  "dwell  in  the  living,  immoveable 
Word  of  God"  and  to  talk  about  "the  things  they 
lived  in,"  i.  e.,  the  things  they  knew  from  their 
own  experience.  He  told  them  not  to  say  too 
much — "  take  heed  of  many  words,"  and  he  kept 
saying  that  everything  must  be  fresh  and  living 
— it  must  "come  out  of  the  life  and  reach  the  life 
in  others."  He  said  that  the  minister  who  expects 
to  reach  people  must  always  "feel  that  he  stands 
in  the  presence  of  the  Lord  God."  He  warned 
them  against  "customary  preaching,"  i.  e.,  preach- 
ing just  because  it  is  the  custom  to  have  a  sermon, 
and  he  told  them  that  they  ought  always  to  aim 
in  their  preaching  to  bring  people  to  such  an 
experience  of  God  in  their  own  souls  that  they 
could  get  along  without  preaching.  "Keep 
out  of  all  jangling,"  he  said  to  them,  which  means, 
"do  not  contend  and  disagree,  but  work  and  think 
and  speak  in  love  and  patience  and  spiritual 
power." 

A  party  of  horsemen  came  to  Luton  to  arrest 
Fox  at  the  close  of  this  great  meeting,  but  for  some 
unexplained  reason  they  did  not  molest  him.  He 


THE  END  OF  THE  COMMONWEALTH  ERA  99 


was  walking  in  the  garden  when  the  soldiers 
arrived  and  they  told  John  Crook,  pointing  to 
Fox,  that  he  was  the  man  they  were  after.  "  But," 
Fox  says,  "  the  Lord's  power  so  confounded  them 
that  they  never  came  into  the  garden,  but  they 
went  their  way  in  a  rage." 

One  of  the  most  important  events  in  the  period 
before  the  Restoration  was  the  planting  of  Quaker- 
ism in  the  American  colonies  and  in  the  West 
Indian  inlands.  At  the  Skipton  general  meeting 
of  1658  a  document  was  issued  which  finely  says: 
"We  have  heard  of  great  things  done  by  the  mighty 
power  of  God  in  many  nations  beyond  the  seas, 
whither  He  hath  called  forth  many  of  our  dear 
brethren  and  sisters  to  preach  the  everlasting 
gospel. " 

It  seems  strange  to  us  now  that  the  island  of 
Barbadoes  was  the  spiritual  center  in  the  western 
world  from  which  Quakerism  spread  to  the  colo- 
nies of  the  Atlantic  coast.  One  of  the  pioneer 
Quaker  travelers  calls  this  island  "the  nursery  of 
the  truth,"  and  we  shall  see  later  that  George  Fox 
went  to  Barbadoes  before  he  came  to  our  shores. 
The  first  "arrivals"  were  women.  Mary  Fisher 
and  Ann  Austin  reached  Barbadoes  toward  the 
end  of  1655  and  after  a  successful  campaign  in  the 
island  they  struck  out  for  Boston  in  the  summer 
of  1656.  About  the  same  time  Elizabeth  Harris 
went  to  the  shores  of  Chesapeake  Bay.  Mary 


ICO  THE   STORY  OF  GEORGE  FOX 


Fisher  and  Ann  Austin  were  very  quickly  expelled 
from  Puritan  Massachusetts  and  so,  too,  was  a 
party  of  eight  Quaker  missionaries  who  arrived 
in  Boston  harbor  from  London  two  days  after  the 
two  women  had  been  banished.  Severe  laws  were 
passed  and  everybody  in  Massachusetts  now  hoped 
that  they  had  built  the  fences  so  high  and  tight 
around  the  colony  that  no  more  Quakers  would 
get  over  them  or  through  them.  But  it  did  not 
prove  to  be  so! 

In  the  summer  of  1657  a  party  of  eleven  sailed 
from  England  for  America  in  the  little  ship, 
JVoodhouse,  owned  and  captained  by  a  remarkable 
Quaker  from  Holderness,  named  Robert  Fowler, 
who  dedicated  his  ship  and  his  life  to  the  service 
of  the  Lord.  In  his  strange  ship-log,  or  narrative 
of  the  journey,  Fowler  says,  "We  saw  the  Lord 
leading  our  vessel,  even  as  it  were  a  man  leading  a 
horse  by  the  head."  Through  strange  experiences 
the  little  ship  was  guided  on  until  it  reached 
New  Amsterdam,  now  New  York  City.  Some 
of  the  Quaker  missionaries  went  to  Long  Island 
where  they  made  many  converts  to  their  truth, 
and  the  rest  went  on  in  the  JVoodhouse,  through 
the  dangerous  Hell-gate  passage,  to  Rhode  Island. 
From  here  the  Quaker  travelers  scattered  out  to 
places  where  they  had  heard  of  groups  prepared 
to  receive  their  message.  They  were  especially 
successful  in  Sandwich  and  in  Salem  in  Massachu- 


THE  END  OF  THE  COMMONWEALTH  ERA  lOI 


setts,  while  large  groups  of  Quakers  were  formed  in 
Newport,  Providence  and  other  towns  of  Rhode 
Island,  which  the  Puritans  called  "the  island  of 
error."  Meantime  the  Puritan  authorities  arose 
in  their  might  to  stop  this  hated  Quaker  "inva- 
sion." Laws  were  passed  to  stamp  out  the  new 
religion  and  to  punish  with  whipping,  imprison- 
ment or  death  every  Quaker  missionary  who  ap- 
peared. But  it  was  not  easy  to  frighten  away 
Quakers  who  believed  the  Lord  sent  them  to 
Massachusetts.  So  they  kept  on  coming  and  went 
up  to  Boston  to  "look  the  bloody  laws  in  the  face." 
Four  Quakers  were  hung  on  Boston  Common, 
three  of  them  visitors  from  England — William 
Robinson,  Marmaduke  Stephenson,  and  William 
Leddra — and  one  a  native  woman,  who  at  the 
time  had  her  home  in  Rhode  Island,  Mary  Dyer. 
It  was,  however,  impossible  to  stop  the  "inva- 
sion." Soon,  in  almost  every  colony  along  the 
coast,  Quaker  meetings  grew  up  and  the  followers 
of  George  Fox  abounded.  In  a  later  chapter  we 
shall  follow  the  travels  of  Fox  as  he  went  up  and 
down  the  Atlantic  coast  line,  visiting  the  meetings 
and  establishing  the  work  begun  by  these  valiant 
pioneers. 


CHAPTER  XI 


THE  PERIOD  OF  FIERCE  PERSECUTION 

Oliver  Cromwell  in  his  heart  truly  loved  lib- 
erty and  hated  persecution.  He  understood  the 
spirit  of  George  Fox  and  apparently  appreciated 
it.  The  Quakers  were  compelled  to  suffer  many 
hardships  while  he  was  Lord  Protector  of  England 
but  never  because  Cromwell  personally  approved 
of  that  method  of  dealing  with  religious  opinions. 
He  had  to  let  many  things  happen  which  he  would 
have  had  different  if  he  could  have  followed  out 
his  own  ideals.  George  Fox,  however,  did  not 
altogether  understand  the  complicated  social  and 
political  conditions  which  prevailed  around  him, 
and  he  too  severely  blamed  the  Protector  for  his 
course.  He  welcomed  the  restoration  of  the  Stuarts 
and  expected,  in  the  light  of  the  great  Declaration 
of  Breda,  that  days  of  peaceful  expansion  were 
now  before  his  beloved  Society.  Just  the  opposite 
of  what  he  hoped  and  expected  really  came  to 
pass,  but  here,  again,  the  persecution  did  not  come 
from  the  evil  will  or  spirit  of  the  King.  He  dis- 
approved of  it  and  disliked  it,  but  he  felt  that, 
under  the  existing  conditions,  he  had  to  allow 
persecution  to  take  its  ruthless  course. 

102 


THE  PERIOD  OF  FIERCE  PERSECUTION  lOJ 


Charles  II.  entered  London,  as  we  have  seen, 
in  May,  1660,  and  about  the  same  time  Fox  was  a 
welcome  guest  at  Swarthmore  Hall,  from  which  as 
a  center  he  was  working  among  the  groups  of 
Friends  in  the  Westmoreland  district.  Judge 
Fell  had  died  in  1658  and  Margaret  Fell  was  now 
the  full  mistress  of  the  manor.  Her  whole  heart 
was  in  the  work  of  publishing  what  Fox  and  his 
friends  called  "the  truth."  She  was  a  strong  per- 
sonality, an  able  woman,  a  real  leader  and  she 
had  become  one  of  the  greatest  forces  in  the  new 
Quaker  movement.  Before  Fox  had  been  many 
days  in  her  house  four  officers  came  with  a  warrant 
to  arrest  him  and  take  him  away  to  Lancaster. 
They  took  him  first  to  Ulverston  where  they 
watched  him  during  the  night  for  fear  he  might 
slip  away  up  the  chimney  and  elude  them !  They 
bragged  much  of  their  success  in  capturing  the 
famous  leader,  one  of  the  officers  saying:  "I  did 
not  think  that  a  thousand  men  could  have  taken 
this  man  prisoner."  Next  morning,  when  some 
Friends  of  the  neighborhood,  with  Margaret  Fell 
and  her  daughters,  came  to  see  him  start  off  on 
his  journey  to  Lancaster,  the  officers  took  alarm 
and  cried  out:  "Will  they  rescue  him!  will  they 
rescue  him!"  Fox  at  once  quieted  their  fears 
and  showed  them  the  spirit  he  was  made  of.  The 
officers  put  him  on  a  "little  horse" — hardly  more 
than  a  pony — which  was  led  by  a  halter.  They 


THE  STORY  OF  GEORGE  FOX 


beat  the  horse  and  made  him  kick  and  run.  Where- 
upon Fox  sHpped  off  the  pony's  back  and  protested 
against  the  abuse  of  the  dumb  creature.  The  odd 
procession  finally  covered  the  fourteen  miles  to 
Lancaster  and  as  the  officers  marched  into  the 
city  with  their  prisoner  he,  sitting  on  his  little 
horse,  was  "moved  to  sing  praises  unto  the  Lord 
in  His  triumphing  power  over  all."  Multitudes 
of  people  in  Lancaster  crowded  the  streets  to  see 
the  prisoner  go  by  and  they  cried  out:  "Look  at 
his  eyes!  Look  at  his  eyes!" 

He  was  examined  before  Justice  Porter,  who 
sternly  asked  him  "why  he  came  down  into  the 
country  at  this  troublesome  time?" — which  shows 
that  they  feared  that  Fox  was  trying  to  foment  a 
rebellion!  He  replied,  "I  come  to  visit  my  breth- 
ren." "  But  you  have  great  meetings  up  and  down 
the  country,"  the  justice  said.  "Yes  we  have 
great  meetings,"  answered  Fox,  "but  they  are 
peaceable  and  we  are  a  peaceable  people."  The 
justice  refused  to  let  Fox  see  a  copy  of  the  warrant 
and  charged  him  with  being  "a  disturber  of  the 
nation,"  "an  enemy  of  the  king,"  a  dangerous 
man  who  was  "endeavoring  to  raise  a  new  war 
and  imbrue  the  nation  in  blood  again."  He  was 
committed  to  the  "Dark  House,"  a  miserable 
dungeon  in  Lancaster  Castle,  where  he  was  kept  a 
close  prisoner,  badly  treated,  threatened  with  hang- 
ing and  given  no  chance  to  defend  himself  legally. 


THE  PERIOD  OF  FIERCE  PERSECUTION  I05 


Margaret  Fell,  meantime,  went  up  to  London 
with  a  strong  protest  against  the  injustice  com- 
mitted against  her  friend.  The  King  ordered  that 
Fox  be  brought  up  to  London  for  trial,  before  the 
Court  of  the  King's  Bench.  Justice  Porter  went 
to  London  to  make  a  stand  against  his  prisoner, 
but,  as  he  had  a  very  bad  record  with  which  to 
face  the  Stuart  king  and  his  cavaliers,  he  soon 
slunk  away  and  hurried  back  home.  While  the 
trial  was  proceeding,  "a  Gentleman  of  the  Bed- 
chamber named  Marsh,"  [Richard  Marche]  came 
to  the  three  judges  who  were  conducting  the  trial 
and  told  them  that  it  was  the  King's  pleasure  that 
"Fox  should  be  set  at  liberty,  seeing  that  no  ac- 
cuser came  up  against  him."  He  was  released  on 
October  25th,  having  been  arrested  on  June  3rd. 

An  unfortunate  outbreak  of  the  "Fifth  Mon- 
archy Men"  occurred  in  London,  January  6th, 
1661,  which  threw  the  whole  city  into  commotion 
and  fear.  Fox  was  at  this  time  in  serious  danger 
since  the  police  and  soldiers  suspected  almost 
everybody  and  acted  without  judgment  or  re- 
straint. Once  more  "the  Gentleman  of  the  Bed- 
chamber, Esquire  Marsh"  came  to  his  rescue 
and  protected  him  until  the  sudden  storm  was 
over.  Throughout  the  whole  country  the  excite- 
ment spread  and  the  Quakers  were  in  many  places 
confused  with  the  unbalanced  Fifth  Monarchy 
people  who  were  being  everywhere  hunted  out. 


lo6  THE  STORY  OF  GEORGE  FOX 

The  king,  however,  at  this  period  exercised  his 
royal  power  in  favor  of  Friends  in  many  instances. 
It  was  at  this  time  that,  through  the  intercession 
of  Edward  Burrough,  he  sent  his  mandate  to  the 
magistrates  in  Massachusetts  and  ordered  them 
to  release  all  Quakers  imprisoned  in  that  colony. 
The  king  sent  his  commands  by  the  hand  of  Samuel 
Shattuck,  who,  as  a  Quaker,  had  been  banished 
on  pain  of  death  from  the  colony!  It  was  too  late 
to  save  Mary  Dyer,  William  Robinson,  Marma- 
duke  Stephenson  and  William  Leddra.  The  first 
three  had  been  executed  while  Fox  was  in  prison 
in  Lancaster  and  he  tells  us  that  he  had  "a  per- 
fect sense  of  their  sufferings  at  the  time,"  as  though, 
he  says,  "  the  halter  had  been  about  my  own  neck." 
But  these  favors  toward  the  Quakers  were  only 
temporary.  New  troubles  of  a  very  serious  sort 
now  began  to  arise  and  every  person  who  accepted 
the  position  of  Fox  was  tested  as  by  fire. 

'The  Act  of  Uniformity  was  passed  in  1662  by 
which  all  clergymen  were  compelled  to  declare  their 
assent  and  consent  to  everything  contained  in  the 
Book  of  Common  Prayer  of  the  English  Church. 
Under  this  Act  about  two  thousand  Puritan  min- 
isters, who  refused  to  give  their  "assent  and  con- 
sent" were  ejected  from  their  churches.  This 
terrible  Act  did  not  directly  affect  Fox  and  his 
followers,  but  it  showed  very  plainly  what  treat- 
ment was  likely  to  be  meted  out  to  those  who  did 


THE  PERIOD  OF  FIERCE  PERSECUTION  I07 


not  conform  in  every  particular  to  the  established 
church. 

Another  Act  followed  this  one  in  1664,  called 
the  Conventicle  Act.  By  this  Act  it  became  a 
crime  for  more  than  five  persons  to  hold  a  meeting 
together  in  any  place,  if  the  meeting  were  not  in 
conformity  with  the  Church  of  England.  The 
penalty  for  the  first  offense  was  £5  (twenty-five 
dollars)  or  three  months'  imprisonment;  for  the 
second  offense  £10  (fifty  dollars)  or  six  months' 
imprisonment;  for  the  third  offense  the  penalty 
was  banishment  to  some  foreign  plantation,  or 
the  payment  of  £100  (five  hundred  dollars)  for 
redemption.  This  Conventicle  Act  struck  straight 
at  the  life  of  the  Quaker  meeting.  If  more  than 
five  Friends  met  to  worship  God  they  were  all 
likely  to  be  arrested  and  fined,  and  as  Friends 
always  refused  to  pay  such  fines,  they  were  sure 
to  be  thrust  into  the  dreadful  prisons  of  the  period. 

There  was  still  another  law  which  gave  the 
Quakers  almost  as  much  trouble  as  did  the  Con- 
venticle Act.  This  was  a  law,  passed  in  May, 
1662,  providing  that  all  persons  who  refused  to 
take  an  oath  should  have  a  similar  series  of  fines 
or  imprisonment  to  those  which  were  imposed 
upon  persons  who  violated  the  Conventicle  Act. 
Friends  had  a  profound  conscientious  objection 
to  taking  any  form  of  oath.  They  believed  that 
Christ  forbade  swearing  and  they  insisted  that 


io8 


THE   STORY  OF  GEORGE  FOX 


a  Christian  ought  always  to  speak  the  truth 
without  taking  an  oath.  But  every  time  a  Friend 
was  brought  into  court  on  any  charge,  it  was 
always  easy  to  catch  him  by  asking  him  to  take 
an  oath.  He  would  never  do  it  and  then,  under  this 
law  of  1662,  his  punishment  followed.  This  Law 
of  May,  1662,  also  made  it  an  offense  for  five  or 
more  Quakers  to  assemble  together  in  a  religious 
meeting  not  authorized  by  law. 

Friends  everywhere  defied  the  Conventicle  Act. 
They  went  on  with  their  meetings  as  though  noth- 
ing had  happened.  The  ofiicers  found  it  very 
difficult  to  deal  with  these  strange  people  who 
showed  no  fear  of  prisons  and  who  put  their 
consciences  above  everything  else  on  earth.  The 
officers  would  break  in  on  a  quiet  meeting,  but 
they  could  not  decide  who  should  be  arrested. 
There  was  no  clergyman  who  represented  the 
congregation.  Everybody  was  on  the  same  dem- 
ocratic level.  If  they  carried  away  all  the  men 
then  the  women  went  right  on  with  the  meeting. 
In  at  least  one  case,  in  the  meeting  at  Reading, 
when  the  officers  carried  away  both  the  men  and 
the  women,  the  children  gathered  and  held  the 
meeting  without  any  grown-up  people  to  direct 
them.  It  was  pretty  hard  to  conquer  or  stamp 
out  a  movement  possessed  and  guided  by  a  spirit 
like  that. 

It  was,   however,   a   terrible  ordeal.  "Our 


THE  PERIOD  OF  FIERCE  PERSECUTION        I O9 


meetings  are  daily  broken  up,"  Fox  writes,  "by- 
men  with  clubs  and  arms,  though  we  meet  peace- 
ably according  to  the  practice  of  God's  people 
in  primitive  times,  and  our  friends  are  thrown 
into  waters  and  trod  upon,  till  the  very  blood 
gushes  out  of  them,  the  number  of  which  abuses 
can  hardly  be  uttered."  During  the  first  two 
years  of  the  Restoration  period  more  than  three 
thousand  Friends  were  thrown  into  prison  and 
when  the  severer  laws  came  into  operation  the 
number  mounted  very  much  higher  and  many 
of  those  who  went  away  to  prison  never  came 
home  again  to  their  families,  for  prisons  then  were 
deadly  places  and  often  like  "pest  houses." 

It  was  at  this  time  that  George  Fox  underwent 
his  longest  imprisonment.  When  he  was  most 
needed  to  help  his  Friends  bear  the  stress  and 
strain  of  the  great  persecution  he  was  separated 
from  them  and  was  in  a  dungeon  from  which, 
a  part  of  the  time  at  least,  it  looked  as  though  he 
might  never  come  out.  In  the  autumn  of  1663 
Fox  was  in  the  northern  counties  and  after  "a 
precious  meeting"  at  Cartmel,  he  came  across 
the  Sands  to  Swarthmore  Hall,  where  he  heard 
that  Colonel  Kirkby,  whom  Fox  calls  Kirby,  of 
Kirkby  Hall,  a  Member  of  Parliament  and  a  strong 
supporter  of  the  Stuarts,  was  hunting  for  him 
and  was  determined  to  have  him  arrested.  He 
was  "moved  of  the  Lord"  to  go  straight  to  Kirkby 


no  THE  STORY  OF  GEORGE  FOX 


Hall  and  to  ask  the  Colonel  what  he  wanted  of  him! 
The  next  morning  after  the  "moving"  came  to 
him  Fox  started  off  for  Kirkby  Hall  which  was 
five  miles  away.  He  found  the  Flemings  who  were 
kinsmen  of  the  Kirkbys  and  many  other  gentry 
of  the  neighborhood  assembled  in  the  Hall,  to 
take  leave  of  Colonel  Kirkby  who  was  starting 
for  London  to  attend  Parliament.  Fox  addressed 
him  in  his  usual  straightforward  manner:  "I  came 
to  visit  thee,  to  know  what  thou  hast  to  say 
to  me  and  to  see  whether  thou  hast  anything 
against  me."  The  Colonel  was  evidently  some- 
what embarrassed  and  said  in  the  presence  of  all 
his  guests:  "As  I  am  a  gentleman  I  have  nothing 
against  you.  But  Mistress  Fell  must  not  keep 
[i.  e.,  hold]  great  meetings  in  her  house,  for  they  are 
contrary  to  the  Act."  Fox  replied:  "That  Act 
does  not  apply  to  us  but  it  is  meant  for  those  who 
meet  to  plot  and  contrive  and  raise  insurrection 
against  the  king,  whereas  we  are  no  such  people. 
Thou  knowest  that  those  who  meet  at  Margaret 
Fell's  house  are  thy  neighbors  and  are  a  peaceable 
people. "  The  Colonel,  after  more  friendly  con- 
versation, gave  Fox  his  hand  and  said:  "I  have 
nothing  against  you."  He  went  on  to  his  duties 
in  London  and  his  visitor  returned  to  Swarthmore 
Hall. 

A  short  time  after  this  the  justices  and  deputy 
lieutenants  of  the  district  had  a  private  meeting 


THE  PERIOD  OF  PERSECUTION  FIERCE  III 


in  Holker  Hall  where  Justice  Preston  lived.  They 
decided  at  this  meeting  to  arrest  Fox.  He  heard 
overnight  of  their  decision  and  of  their  plans, 
and  he  might  easily  have  escaped,  but  that  was 
not  his  way.  He  says:  "I  considered  that,  as 
there  was  the  noise  of  a  plot  in  the  north,  if  I 
should  go  away  they  might  fall  upon  Friends; 
but  if  I  gave  up  myself  to  be  taken,  it  might  stop 
them  and  Friends  should  escape  the  better.  So 
I  gave  up  to  be  taken,  and  prepared  myself  for 
their  coming." 

Next  day  an  officer  came  with  sword  and  pistols, 
to  take  him.  He  was  much  surprised  to  find  that 
Fox  knew  all  about  the  proposed  arrest  and  might 
have  been  "forty  miles  away,"  if  he  had  cared  to 
escape.  He  quietly  said,  "I  am  ready  to  go,"  and, 
accompanied  by  Margaret  Fell,  he  went  with  the 
officer  to  Holker  Hall  to  meet  his  accusers. 


CHAPTER  XII 


THREE  YEARS  IN  CASTLES 

The  great  scene  in  Holker  Hall  has  been  painted 
by  a  modern  artist.  Three  justices  "examined" 
the  Quaker  prisoner,  endeavoring  in  vain  to  un- 
earth some  ground  on  which  to  condemn  him. 
He  was  more  than  their  match,  however,  and  asked 
them  questions  which  they  could  not  answer. 
No  sign  of  any  connection  with  a  plot  could  be 
fixed  upon  him  and  his  entire  testimony  was  as 
clear  as  a  bell:  "We  stand,"  he  said,  "for  all  good 
government." 

When  no  ground  of  condemnation  could  be 
discovered,  the  justices,  who  were  determined 
to  make  a  show  of  their  loyalty  to  the  new  king 
and  were  resolved  to  commit  Fox  to  prison  on 
some  charge,  decided  to  catch  him  with  the  de- 
mand for  an  oath.  "Bring  the  Book  [the  Bible]", 
one  of  them  cried,  "and  put  the  oaths  of  allegiance 
and  supremacy  to  him."  This  justice  himself  was 
a  Roman  Catholic  and,  as  the  prisoner  slyly  sug- 
gested, had  never  taken  the  oath  of  allegiance  to 
the  Protestant  king  who  in  the  oath  had  to  be 
recognized  as  supreme  head  of  the  Church.  "What 
church  dost  thou  belong  to?"  Fox  asked  him. 

112 


THREE  YEARS  IN  CASTLES 


"3 


"Where  wast  thou  in  Oliver's  days  and  what  didst 
thou  do  then  for  King  Charles?" 

The  oath  was  tendered  to  Fox  and  he  simply 
declared  that  he  could  take  no  oath.  The  justices 
dismissed  him,  only  making  him  promise  to  come 
to  the  next  court  sessions  in  Lancaster.  Mean- 
time he  was  allowed  to  return  to  Swarthmore 
Hall.  When  the  court  sessions  came  in  January, 
1664,  ^'^^  appeared,  according  to  his  promise, 
at  Lancaster,  and  stood  before  the  court  with  his 
hat  on  his  head  and  said,  "Peace  be  among  you," 
There  was  much  discussion  about  his  hat,  but 
finally  he  was  allowed  to  wear  it  unmolested.  Once 
more  the  justices  examined  him  about  a  possible 
plot,  but  found  no  evidence.  Then,  having  no 
other  way  to  condemn  him,  they  tendered  the 
oath  again.  Fox  answered:  "I  cannot  take  any 
oath  at  all  because  Christ  and  the  apostles  have 
forbidden  It.  I  have  never  taken  an  oath  in  my 
life."  Whereupon  he  was  committed  to  prison 
"for  refusing  to  swear."  He  was  kept  in  confine- 
ment in  Lancaster  Castle  until  the  court  assizes, 
three  months  later. 

At  the  assizes  in  March,  1664,  he  was  asked 
again  if  he  would  take  the  oath  of  allegiance  and 
once  more  he  stated  his  reasons  with  directness 
and  force,  but  refused.  The  discussions  with 
the  justices  were  very  amusing  and  showed  Fox's 
skill  in  handling  his  case,  but  whenever  he  got 


Il4  THE  STORY  OF  GEORGE  FOX 


them  in  a  close  place  they  would  retort,  "Will  you 
take  the  oath?"  At  length  he  was  re-committed 
to  his  prison  until  the  next  assizes.  At  the  same 
time  Margaret  Fell,  for  the  same  reason,  was  im- 
prisoned in  Lancaster  jail.  At  the  August  as- 
sizes, Fox  once  more  was  brought  into  court. 
The  oath  was  again  tendered,  and  again  refused. 
The  jury,  because  of  Fox's  refusal  to  take  the  oath, 
found  him  guilty,  and  while  waiting  for  his  sen- 
tence, he  requested  that  the  judge  should  send 
some  one  to  see  the  vile  prison  in  which  he  was 
being  kept.  Some  of  the  justices,  with  Colonel 
Kirkby,  went  to  look  at  the  prison-dungeon. 
"When  they  came,"  Fox  says,  "they  hardly  durst 
go  in,  the  floor  was  so  bad  and  dangerous  and  the 
place  was  so  open  to  wind  and  rain.  Some  that 
came  up  said,  'Sure  it  was  a  jakes-house.'" 

The  next  day  Fox  skillfully  showed  that  the 
writ  of  indictment  under  which  he  was  being 
sentenced  was  full  of  errors.  The  court  admitted 
it,  and  Fox  would  have  escaped  sentence  had  not 
the  judge  decided  to  hold  him  again  by  the  de- 
mand for  an  oath.  Fox  says:  "I  looked  him  in 
the  face  and  the  witness  of  God  started  up  in  him 
and  made  him  blush  when  he  looked  at  me,  for 
he  saw  that  I  saw  him."  He  was  commanded 
back  to  his  dungeon  until  the  next  assizes,  the 
order  to  the  jailer  being  that  he  should  have  close 
solitary  confinement. 


THREE  YEARS  IN  CASTLES 


"5 


"Then,"  Fox  says,  "I  was  put  into  a  tower, 
where  the  smoke  of  the  other  prisoners  came 
up  so  thick,  that  it  stood  as  dew  upon  the  walls, 
and  sometimes  it  was  so  thick  that  I  could  hardly 
see  the  candle  when  it  burned;  and  I  being  locked 
under  three  locks,  the  under-jailer,  when  the  smoke 
was  great,  would  hardly  be  persuaded  to  come 
up  to  unlock  one  of  the  uppermost  doors,  for 
fear  of  the  smoke,  so  that  I  was  almost  smothered. 
Besides,  it  rained  in  upon  my  bed,  and  many  times, 
when  I  went  to  stop  out  the  rain  in  the  cold 
winter  season,  my  shirt  was  wet  through  with 
the  rain  that  came  in  upon  me,  while  I  was  labor- 
ing to  stop  it  out.  And  the  place  being  high  and 
open  to  the  wind,  sometimes  as  fast  as  I  stopped 
it,  the  wind  blew  it  out  again.  In  this  manner 
did  I  lie,  all  that  long  cold  winter,  till  the  next 
assize;  in  which  time  I  was  so  starved  with  cold 
and  rain,  that  my  body  was  greatly  swelled,  and 
my  limbs  much  benumbed." 

At  the  March  assizes  in  1665,  he  went  through 
the  same  sort  of  absurd  trial  again.  Once  more 
he  found  serious  errors  in  the  indictment,  but 
was  instantly  held  up  by  the  call  for  an  oath, 
which  he  could  not  take.  In  a  moment  of  anger  the 
judge  ordered  him  removed  from  court  and  then 
sentence  was  pronounced  on  him  in  his  absence 
which  was  contrary  to  the  law.  It  was  a  terrible 
sentence  of  prcemunire.    This  was  an  ancient 


ii6 


THE  STORY  OF  GEORGE  FOX 


penalty  contrived  first  by  the  Plantagenet  kings 
for  dealing  with  persons  whom  they  wished  to 
destroy.  It  had  been  revived  in  the  period  of  the 
Reformation  for  disposing  of  persons  who  held  a 
form  of  religion  not  in  conformity  with  the  ruling 
power.  Now,  under  Charles  II.,  it  was  brought  in 
again  to  overwhelm  those  who  refused  the  oath 
of  allegiance  and  supremacy.  By  the  penalty  of 
prcemunire  the  person  sentenced  was  made  an 
outlaw,  had  all  his  property  confiscated,  and  was 
subject  to  perpetual  imprisonment,  or  until  the 
king  issued  a  pardon.  It  was  now  pronounced 
on  both  George  Fox  and  Margaret  Fell,  though 
the  former  being  absent  from  court  did  not  know 
what  a  terrible  sentence  had  been  passed  upon  him. 

Fourteen  months  had  passed  since  his  arrest. 
He  had  spent  most  of  the  time  in  an  appalling 
dungeon.  He  was  guilty  of  no  crime.  He  was 
pure  in  heart,  innocent  of  all  plots,  loyal  to  the 
king,  and  punished  only  because  he  could  not  do 
what  he  believed  the  very  Bible,  on  which  he 
was  asked  to  swear,  told  him  not  to  do.  He  grew 
very  weak  and  worn  from  his  close  confinement 
under  such  unsanitary  conditions,  but  still  he 
worked  on  with  his  pen  and  issued  many  papers 
and  tracts  from  his  castle-dungeon.  Colonel 
Kirkby  and  the  other  justices  were  eager  to  get 
rid  of  him  and  wanted  him  removed  from  their 
jurisdiction.     There  was  talk  of  sending  him 


THREE  YEARS  IN  CASTLES 


117 


"beyond  seas,"  but  finally  an  order  was  secured 
to  transfer  him  to  a  remote  castle  in  another  part 
of  England.  He  was  brought  out  of  his  confine- 
ment one  day  in  April,  1665,  without  knowing 
his  destination.  He  was  too  weak  to  walk.  He 
was  carried  by  the  men  and  placed  on  horseback 
and  hurried  away  through  the  gazing  crowds  of 
Lancaster.  It  was  a  strange  journey  across  Eng- 
land. A  white,  haggard  man,  in  filthy,  ill-smelling 
clothes,  on  a  horse,  which  "the  wicked  jailer" 
would  occasionally  whip  to  make  him  skip  and 
leap,  riding  from  a  castle  in  Lancaster  to  his  new 
castle  by  the  sea,  in  Scarborough.  There  was  an 
escort  of  soldiers  riding  beside  him,  for  there  was 
"a  great  fear"  that  the  prisoner  might  try  to 
escape  or  be  rescued  by  his  dangerous  friends! 
At  length,  fainting  and  exhausted.  Fox  reached 
his  castle  by  the  sea,  and  found  himself  once  more 
in  a  prison  cell  where  the  rain  came  in  upon  him, 
and  which,  like  the  old  one  in  Lancaster,  "smoked 
exceedingly  and  was  very  offensive."  In  fact 
the  smoke  was  so  thick  in  the  little  room  that 
Fox  playfully  told  Sir  Jordan  Crosslands,  the 
governor  of  the  castle,  who  was  a  Roman  Catholic, 
that  he  had  lodged  his  prisoner  in  a  kind  of  pur- 
gatory here  on  earth. 

Fox  spent  fifty  shillings  to  improve  his  cell, 
to  stop  the  rain  from  coming  in  and  to  keep  the 
smoke  out,  and  he  had  succeeded  in  getting  the 


Il8  THE  STORY  OF  GEORGE  FOX 


place  more  decent  for  habitation  when  he  was 
unexpectedly  moved  to  another  room,  which 
turned  out  to  be  worse  than  his  original  one  had 
been.  This  new  room  was  a  terrible  place  for  a 
weak,  ill,  prison-worn  man  to  live  in.  His  own 
description  of  it  is  very  graphic  and  will  make  the 
reader  vividly  realize  the  kind  of  life  the  poor, 
long-suffering  man  had  in  this  famous  castle: 
"When  I  had  been  at  that  charge,  and  made 
it  somewhat  tolerable,  they  removed  me  into  a 
worse  room,  where  I  had  neither  chimney  nor 
fire-hearth.  This  being  to  the  sea-side  and  lying 
much  open,  the  wind  drove  in  the  rain  forcibly, 
so  that  the  water  came  over  my  bed,  and  ran  about 
the  room,  that  I  was  fain  to  skim  it  up  with  a 
platter.  And  when  my  clothes  were  wet,  I  had 
no  fire  to  dry  them;  so  that  my  body  was  benumbed 
with  cold,  and  my  fingers  swelled,  that  one  was 
grown  as  big  as  two.  Though  I  was  at  some  charge 
in  this  room  also,  I  could  not  keep  out  the  wind 
and  rain.  Besides  they  would  suffer  few  Friends 
to  come  to  me,  and  many  times  not  any,  no,  not 
so  much  as  to  bring  me  a  little  food;  but  I  was 
forced  for  the  first  quarter  to  hire  one,  not  a 
Friend,  to  bring  me  necessaries.  Sometimes  the 
soldiers  would  take  it  from  her,  and  she  would 
scuffle  with  them  for  it.  Afterwards  I  hired  a 
soldier  to  bring  me  water  and  bread,  and  something 
to  make  a  fire  of,  when  I  was  in  a  room  where  a 


THREE  YEARS  IN  CASTLES 


119 


fire  could  be  made.  Commonly  a  threepenny 
loaf  served  me  three  weeks,  and  sometimes  longer, 
and  most  of  my  drink  was  water  with  wormwood 

steeped  or  bruised  in  it   Inasmuch  as  they 

kept  me  so  very  strait,  not  giving  liberty  for 
Friends  to  come  to  mie,  I  spoke  to  the  keepers 
of  the  castle  to  this  effect:  'I  did  not  know  till 
I  was  removed  from  Lancaster  castle,  and  brought 
prisoner  to  this  castle  of  Scarbro,  that  I  was  con- 
victed of  a  praemunire;  for  the  judge  did  not 
give  sentence  upon  me  at  the  assizes  in  open  court. 
But  seeing  I  am  now  a  prisoner  here,  if  I  may  not 
have  my  liberty,  let  my  friends  and  acquaintances 
have  their  liberty  to  come  and  visit  me,  as  Paul's 
friends  had  among  the  Romans,  who  were  not 
Christians  but  Heathens.  For  Paul's  friends 
had  their  liberty;  all  that  would,  might  come  to 
him,  and  he  had  his  liberty  to  preach  to  them  in 
his  hired  house;  but  I  cannot  have  liberty  to  go 
into  the  town,  nor  for  my  friends  to  come  to  me 
here.  So  you  that  go  under  the  name  of  Christians, 
are  worse  in  this  respect  than  those  Heathens 
were. 

Although  the  officials  of  the  castle  would  not 
allow  any  Friends  to  visit  the  prisoner  and  he 
was  as  "a  man  buried  alive,"  they  did  permit 
other  people  to  come  and  either  gaze  upon  him 
or  dispute  with  him.  A  number  of  Roman  Cath- 
olics, who  were  friends  of  the  governor,  came, 


I20 


THE  STORY  OF  GEORGE  FOX 


out  of  curiosity,  to  discuss  religion  with  him  and  he 
showed  considerable  skill  and  humor  in  his  keen 
questions  and  answers  with  them.  It  must  have 
been  a  great  relief  and  refreshment  to  be  able  to 
use  his  pent  up  mind  on  these  subjects  which  in- 
terested him  more  than  anything  else  in  the  world 
did.  He  also  had  debates  with  Presbyterians, 
with  knights,  noble  ladies,  priests  and  laymen, 
and  these  visits  not  only  broke  the  dreary  monot- 
ony of  his  prison  life;  they  enabled  him  to  feel 
that,  like  St.  Paul  in  Rome,  he  was  spreading  his 
truth,  even  while  he  suffered  for  it. 

One  of  the  most  interesting  of  all  his  visitors 
was  Dr.  Cradock,  who  brought  with  him  three 
clergymen  and  a  titled  lady.  They  debated  at 
length  about  the  taking  of  oaths,  going  over  the 
usual  Bible  texts  for  argument.  Then  Fox  turned 
the  tables  on  the  divinity  doctor  by  asking  him 
why  his  church  was  now  excommunicating  Friends 
when  it  had  done  nothing  to  minister  to  the  spirit- 
ual condition  of  England  at  the  time  when  Friends 
arose.  "We  might  have  turned  Turks  or  Jews," 
Fox  told  him,  "for  any  help  we  had  from  you." 
"Now,"  he  added,  "you  have  put  us  out  of  your 
church  before  you  have  got  us  into  it  and  before 
you  taught  us  to  know  your  principles!" 

At  first  Sir  Jordan  Crosslands  had  taken  little 
interest  in  his  Quaker  prisoner,  but  in  the  course 
of  time  he  came  to  realize  what  an  unusual  inmate 


THREE  YEARS  IN  CASTLES 


121 


of  his  castle  George  Fox  really  was.  Meantime 
some  trouble  came  upon  the  governor  of  the 
castle  which  made  him  more  serious  and,  Fox  says, 
"more  friendly."  During  the  earlier  period  of 
the  imprisonment  at  Scarborough  the  officers 
tried  to  scare  Fox  with  dire  threats.  They  told 
him  that  he  was  likely  soon  to  be  "hanged  over 
the  wall."  The  deputy-governor  informed  him 
that  the  king  was  holding  him  at  Scarborough  as 
a  hostage,  and  that  if  there  should  be  any  popular 
uprising  anywhere  in  the  nation.  Fox  was  to  be 
"hung  over  the  wall  to  keep  the  people  down." 
On  one  particular  occasion,  when  a  marriage  was 
being  performed  at  Scarborough  by  Roman  Cath- 
olic ceremony,  the  prison  officials  intimated  to 
Fox  that  this  would  probably  be  a  good  time  to 
have  his  hanging  come  off.  "I  am  all  ready  for 
it,"  was  the  brave  man's  answer.  "I  have  never 
feared  death  nor  suffering  in  my  life.  I  am  an 
innocent,  peaceable  man,  free  from  all  plots  and 
uprisings.  I  have  always  sought  the  good  of  all 
men.    Bring  out  your  gallows. " 

But  during  the  last  period  of  the  imprisonment 
the  governor  grew  kinder  and  more  tender.  He 
discovered  the  spirit  of  Fox  and  was  ready  to 
help  him  to  get  his  freedom.  He  was  a  Member  of 
Parliament  and  on  one  of  his  visits  to  London  he 
spoke  to  "Esquire  Marsh,"  of  whom  we  have  heard 
before,  and  told  him  how  Fox  was  held  all  these 


122  THE   STORY  OF  GEORGE  FOX 


years  in  prison.  "I  would  go  a  hundred  miles 
barefoot  to  secure  his  Hberty, "  was  "Marsh's"  en- 
thusiastic response.  Affairs,  however,  moved 
slowly.  England  was  at  war  with  Holland,  and 
it  is  always  easy  to  forget  and  overlook  a  lone  man 
far  away  in  a  prison.  But  Fox's  Friends  in  London 
did  not  forget  him.  Two  of  them,  who  had  public 
influence,  drew  up  an  account  of  what  he  had 
suffered  in  his  two  castle  imprisonments  and  car- 
ried the  report  to  "  Esquire  Marsh,"  who  took  it  to 
"the  master  of  requests."  The  latter  procured 
from  the  king  an  order  to  release  Fox  from  his 
castle  prison.  The  order  declared  that  the  king 
was  convinced  that  George  Fox  was  "a  man 
principled  against  plotting  and  fighting,"  and  was 
always  more  ready  to  discover  plots  than  to  make 
them,  and  that,  therefore,  it  was  the  royal  pleasure 
that  he  should  be  set  free.  As  soon  as  the  order 
was  brought  by  a  devoted  Friend  to  Sir  Jordan 
Crosslands  he  issued  the  following  passport: 
"Permit  the  bearer  hereof,  George  Fox,  late  a 
prisoner  here,  and  now  discharged  by  His  Majes- 
ty's order,  quietly  to  pass  about  his  lawful  occa- 
sions, without  any  molestation." 

The  discharge  was  dated  September  ist,  1666, 
and  closed  an  imprisonment  which  had  begun 
January  nth,  1664,  so  that  it  lacked  about  three 
months  of  being  three  years  long.  The  feeling 
of  the  castle  governor  toward  his  charge  was 


THREE  YEARS  IN  CASTLES  I 

kind  and  friendly  and  Fox  had  come  to  respect 
his  knightly  keeper.  He  proposed  to  make  a 
present  to  Sir  Jordan,  but  the  latter  refused  to 
receive  anything,  saying:  "I  will  do  you  and 
your  friends  all  the  good  I  can,  and  I  will  never 
do  you  any  hurt."  "He  continued  loving," 
Fox  says,  "to  his  dying  day."  The  officers  of  the 
castle,  too,  had  felt  the  spirit  and  power  of  the 
man  under  their  care  and  formed  a  high  opinion 
of  him.  "He  was  as  stiff  as  a  tree,"  they  said, 
"and  as  pure  as  a  bell;  for  we  could  never  bow 
him." 


CHAPTER  XIII 


UNITED  IN  THE  IMMORTAL  SEED 

While  George  Fox  was  standing  the  universe 
in  Scarborough  castle,  London  was  suffering  from 
a  fearful  plague  that  carried  away  a  large  part  of 
the  population,  and  the  day  after  he  was  released 
from  his  prison  the  great  fire  of  1666  swept  over 
the  city,  destroying  thirteen  thousand  houses.  Fox 
believed  that  he  had  foreseen  this  calamity.  "As 
I  was  walking  in  my  chamber"  [apparently  while 
he  was  in  Lancaster  castle],  he  says,  "with  my 
eye  to  the  Lord,  I  saw  the  angel  of  the  Lord  with 
a  glittering  drawn  sword  stretched  southward, 
as  though  the  court  had  been  all  on  fire." 

As  soon  as  he  was  once  more  a  free  man  he  set 
out  immediately  on  a  strenuous  religious  tour 
of  the  counties,  having  everywhere  "large  and 
blessed  meetings."  But  though  he  seemed  to 
have  abnormal  strength  for  a  person  who  had 
just  had  three  years  of  dungeon  life,  he  was, 
nevertheless,  now  an  aged  and  somewhat  broken 
man.  In  years  he  was  only  forty-two  and  he  had 
still  almost  twenty-four  years  of  life  before  him, 
but  the  awful  prisons  had  left  their  mark  upon  his 
body  and  he  never  again  possessed  the  iron  con- 

124 


UNITED  IN  THE  IMMORTAL   SEED  12^ 


stitution  which  was  his  before  the  jails  had  wasted 
him.  "My  joints  and  my  body,"  he  writes  after 
quite  a  period  of  travel,  "were  so  stiff  and  be- 
numbed that  I  could  hardly  get  on  my  horse  or 
bend  my  joints;  nor  could  I  well  bear  to  be  near 
the  fire  or  eat  warm  meat,  I  had  been  kept  so 
long  from  it."  A  few  years  later  he  passed  through 
a  long  and  serious  illness  at  Enfield,  from  which 
his  friends  never  expected  to  see  him  recover, 
and  on  his  voyage  to  America  he  was  desperately 
ill.  He  says  of  this  illness:  "The  many  hurts 
and  bruises  I  had  formerly  received,  and  the  in- 
firmities I  had  contracted  in  England  by  extreme 
cold  and  hardships  that  I  had  undergone  in  many 
long  and  sore  imprisonments,  returned  upon  me 
at  sea."  He  had  also  a  long  period  of  great  ill- 
ness and  physical  weakness  after  landing  in  Bar- 
badoes,  "with  much  pain,"  he  says,  "in  my  bones, 
joints  and  my  whole  body,  so  that  I  could  hardly 
get  any  rest."  But  his  unconquerable  spirit 
dominated  his  body  and  in  spite  of  his  bruises 
and  weaknesses  he  made  it  go  on  serving  his 
strong  will  and  purpose. 

In  this  later  period  of  his  ministry  Fox  was  re- 
warded by  the  convincement  of  some  remarkable 
men  who  brought  new  distinction  and  power  to 
the  Society  which  he  had  founded.  The  most 
famous  of  them  all  was  William  Penn,  the  son  of 
Admiral  Penn.  As  the  founder  of  the  great  middle 


126 


THE  STORY  OF  GEORGE  FOX 


colony  and  state  which  now  bears  his  name,  he 
has  won  a  place  of  marked  distinction  in  American 
history.  His  life  is  full  of  romance  and  daring 
as  well  as  suffering,  and  he  will  always  be  cele- 
brated for  his  defense  of  personal  liberty  at  home 
and  for  his  "holy  experiment"  in  the  Western 
colony.  Robert  Barclay  of  Scotland  was  another 
shining  light  in  the  Quaker  group.  Scholar  and 
saint,  he  brought  gifts  which  no  other  Friends 
possessed  and  it  fell  to  his  lot  to  write  the  great 
defense  of  the  Quaker  faith  which  every  Friend 
read  for  two  centuries,  Barclay's  Apology.  Isaac 
Penington,  mystic  and  saint,  beautiful  soul  and 
gifted  writer,  was  won  to  the  cause  before  Fox 
went  to  his  two  castles.  At  Swannington  meeting 
in  1658  he  found  God  and  felt  the  healing  drop 
into  his  soul  from  under  God's  wings,  and  from 
that  time  until  his  death  he  used  his  pen  and  tongue 
to  advance  the  truth  which  his  own  soul  had  dis- 
covered. Thomas  Ellwood,  John  Milton's  secre- 
tary, another  highly  gifted  man,  at  great  sacri- 
fice, threw  in  his  lot  with  the  followers  of  Fox  in 
1660.  Like  their  leader,  they  all  suffered  for  their 
faith  and  they  all  gave  the  best  they  had  in  them 
for  the  truth  which  their  souls  had  found. 

During  the  long  silent  stretches  of  his  imprison- 
ment Fox  had  evidently  been  meditating  deeply 
and  thinking  much  of  the  future  of  the  Society 
which  had  grown  up  so  rapidly  under  his  preach- 


UNITED  IN  THE  IMMORTAL  SEED  1 27 


ing.  There  were  many  signs  of  weakness  in  it  and 
lack  of  organization.  He  came  out  of  prison  with 
a  resolve  to  prepare  the  Society  for  its  great  tasks 
in  the  world  and  to  organize  it  more  thoroughly 
while  he  was  still  with  his  Friends  and  had  the 
strength  and  freedom  to  do  it.  He  found  Friends 
who  were  careless  and  disorderly  and  he  felt  that 
much  more  oversight  of  the  members  was  needed. 
He  recommended  that  monthly  meetings  should 
be  established  to  take  care  of  those  who  were 
poor  and  in  need;  to  look  after  those  who  were 
suffering  for  their  faith;  to  keep  records  of  births 
and  deaths  and  marriages  and  to  have  a  careful 
oversight  over  the  lives  of  the  membership.  There 
were  some  Friends  who  stoutly  disapproved  of  so 
much  system  and  method.  They  wanted  every- 
thing left  free  for  the  individuals  to  decide  accord- 
ing to  their  own  light.  These  opposers  of  regula- 
tion and  discipline  gave  Fox  a  vast  amount  of 
trouble  and  anxiety.  He  could  stand  persecution 
and  he  could  face  the  mob  and  the  prison,  but  it 
was  much  harder  to  endure  the  attacks  and  com- 
plaints and  criticisms  of  his  own  followers.  The 
rest  of  his  life  was  to  be  largely  occupied  with 
this  great  work  of  organization  and  with  smooth- 
ing differences  and  with  bringing  order  out  of 
chaos  and  disorder.  It  is  not  so  interesting  to 
read  about  as  the  victorious  early  campaigns 
through  the  counties,  but  it  took  even  more  pa- 


128 


THE   STORY  OF  GEORGE  FOX 


tience  and  grace  and  wisdom,  and  it  revealed  in  a 
new  way  the  greatness  of  George  Fox  as  a  leader. 
He  saw,  too,  at  this  time,  the  great  importance  of 
education  and  the  training  of  the  mind.  He  now 
advised  the  establishment  of  schools  for  boys  and 
girls,  who  were  to  be  taught  "whatsoever  things 
_were  civil  and  useful  in  the  creation"! 

After  a  successful  religious  journey  in  Ireland, 
where  he  had  "large  and  precious  meetings," 
and  where  he  gathered  "a  good,  weighty  and  true 
people,  sensible  of  the  power  of  the  Lord  God 
and  tender  of  His  truth,"  he  took  one  of  the  most 
interesting  steps  of  his  life.  He  joined  himself 
in  marriage  with  his  dear  friend  and  helper, 
Margaret  Fell.  She  had  been  imprisoned  at  Lan- 
caster with  George  Fox  and  after  fourteen  months 
of  jail  she  had  been  sentenced  under  the  statute  of 
prcemunire  in  1665,  and  her  imprisonment  had 
lasted,  with  possibly  slight  breaks  of  freedom, 
until  June,  1668.  Even  then,  though  temporarily 
released,  the  sentence  still  hung  over  her  and  made 
her  a  prison  victim  for  yet  many  more  years. 
While  Fox  was  in  Ireland  she  was  using  her  joy- 
ous freedom  in  visiting  the  prisons  where  other 
Friends  through  the  nation  were  suffering.  She 
had  taken  her  youngest  daughter,  Rachel,  to 
the  new  girls'  school  at  Shacklewell  to  learn  every- 
thing "useful  in  the  creation"  and  she  was  on  a 
visit  to  her  daughter  Isabel  who  had  married 


UNITED  IN  THE  IMMORTAL  SEED  12g 


William  Yeamans  of  Bristol.  Here  in  Bristol 
George  Fox  found  her  and  won  her  as  his  true  and 
loyal  wife.  His  own  account  of  how  it  happened 
is  quaint  and  charming.    He  says: 

"I  had  seen  from  the  Lord  a  considerable  time 
before,  that  I  should  take  Margaret  Fell  to  be  my 
wife.  And  when  I  first  mentioned  it  to  her,  she 
felt  the  answer  of  Life  from  God  thereunto.  But 
though  the  Lord  had  opened  this  thing  to  me,  yet 
I  had  not  received  a  command  from  the  Lord,  for 
the  accomplishment  of  it  then.  Wherefore  I  let 
the  thing  rest,  and  went  on  in  the  work  and  service 
of  the  Lord  as  before,  according  as  he  led  me; 
travelling  up  and  down  in  this  nation  and  through 
Ireland.  But  now  being  at  Bristol,  and  finding 
Margaret  Fell  there,  it  opened  in  me  from  the 
Lord  that  the  thing  should  be  accomplished. 
After  we  had  discoursed  the  matter  together,  I 
told  her,  if  she  also  was  satisfied  with  the  ac- 
complishment of  it  now,  she  should  first  send  for 
her  children;  which  she  did.  When  the  rest  of 
her  daughters  were  come,  I  asked  both  them  and 
her  sons  in  law,  if  they  had  anything  against  it, 
or  for  it;  and  they  all  severally  expressed  their 
satisfaction  therein.  Then  I  asked  Margaret, 
if  she  had  fulfilled  and  performed  her  husband's 
will  to  her  children.  She  replied,  "the  children 
knew  that."  Whereupon  I  asked  them,  whether, 
if  their  mother  married,  they  should  not  lose  by 


THE  STORY  OF  GEORGE  FOX 


it.  And  I  asked  Margaret,  whether  she  had  done 
anything  in  Heu  of  it,  which  might  answer  it  to 
the  children?  [All  of  which  means,  in  plain  Eng- 
lish, that  she  had  made  arrangements  and  pro- 
vision so  that  her  children  would  not  lose  any  of 
their  rightful  property  if  their  mother  married 
George  Fox.]  The  children  said,  that  she  had 
answered  it  to  them,  and  desired  me  to  speak  no 
more  of  it.  I  told  them  I  was  plain  and  would 
have  all  things  done  plainly;  for  I  sought  not  any 
outward  advantage  to  myself.  So  after  I  had  thus 
acquainted  the  children  with  it,  our  intention  of 
marriage  was  laid  before  Friends,  both  privately 
and  publicly,  to  their  full  satisfaction,  many  of 
whom  gave  testimony  thereunto  that  it  was  of 
God.  Afterwards,  a  meeting  being  appointed  for 
the  accomplishment  thereof,  in  the  meetinghouse 
at  Broad-Mead  in  Bristol,  we  took  each  other,  the 
Lord  joining  us  together  in  the  honourable  mar- 
riage, in  the  everlasting  covenant  and  immortal 
Seed  of  life.  In  the  sense  whereof,  living  and 
weighty  testimonies  were  borne  thereunto  by 
Friends,  in  the  movings  of  the  heavenly  power 
which  united  us  together.  Then  was  a  certificate 
relating  both  to  the  proceedings  and  the  mar- 
riage, openly  read,  and  signed  by  the  relations,  and 
by  most  of  the  ancient  Friends  of  that  city,  besides 
many  others  from  divers  parts  of  the  nation." 
This  marriage,  which  they  both  believed  was 


UNITED  IN  THE  IMMORTAL  SEED 


"In  the  immortal  Seed  of  life" — i.  e.,  according  to 
the  divine  will  and  in  unity  with  the  eternal  spirit 
of  Jesus  Christ — proved  to  be  a  very  beautiful 
and  happy  one.  For  some  years  after  they  were 
thus  united  George  Fox  and  his  wife  saw  almost 
nothing  of  one  another,  but  they  were  very  closely 
joined  together  in  sincere  love  through  all  this 
period  of  hard  separation.  Fox  wrote  many  letters 
to  his  wife.  They  are  brief,  quaint,  odd  love  let- 
ters, but  they  have  the  deep,  true  note  of  real  affec- 
tion. They  generally  begin :  "  My  dear  Heart  in  the 
Truth  and  Life  that  changeth  not,"  and  they  close 
with  some  such  phrase  as  this:  "So  no  more,  but 
my  love  in  the  Seed  and  Life  that  changeth  not." 

The  reason  they  were  so  much  separated  was 
that  Margaret  Fox  was  taken  back  to  prison 
almost  at  once  after  the  marriage  was  accom- 
plished and  Fox  not  very  much  later  took  an  ex- 
tensive journey  overseas.  They  had  a  week  to- 
gether in  Bristol  after  they  were  united  "in  the 
immortal  Seed  of  Life."  After  they  traveled 
together  a  short  distance  they  took  leave  of 
one  another  and  parted  to  their  "several  serv- 
ices." "Margaret  returned  homewards  to  the 
north,"  Fox  says,  "and  I  passed  on  in  the  work 
of  the  Lord  as  before" — a  week  was  all  he  could 
spare  of  the  precious  time  which  belonged  to  the 
Lord's  work.  Fox  had  expected  to  join  his  wife 
in  Leicestershire — perhaps  at  his  old  home  at 


132 


THE   STORY  OF  GEORGE  FOX 


Fenny  Drayton — but  instead  of  coming  south 
to  meet  him,  as  he  asked  her  to  do,  she  was  "haled 
out  of  her  house  to  Lancaster  prison  again,  by 
an  order  obtained  from  the  king  and  council,  to 
fetch  her  back  to  prison  upon  the  old  prcemunire." 
It  looks  as  though  Margaret  Fox's  son  George, 
who  was  strongly  opposed  to  the  marriage  with 
George  Fox,  may  have  had  something  to  do  with 
bringing  about  the  arrest  and  reimprisonment  of 
his  mother  under  the  prcemunire.  He  did  not  share 
his  sisters'  love  of  Fox  and  he  plainly  plotted  in 
London  to  bring  the  husband  and  wife  into  trouble. 
Fox  wrote,  "I  am  informed  he  [George  Fell]  hath 
been  with  Kirkby,  Monk  and  such-like  persons; 
and  I  understand  his  intent  is  to  have  Swarth- 
more.  .  .  .  The  agreement  thou  made  with  him, 
he  says,  signifies  nothing,  thou  being  a  prisoner." 
In  any  case,  whether  by  unnatural  intrigue,  or 
through  general  opposition  to  the  Quakers,  this 
good  woman,  now  fifty-five  years  old,  almost  im- 
mediately after  her  marriage,  was  hurried  away 
from  home  to  prison,  where  she  was  lodged  from 
March,  1670,  to  April,  1671. 

The  Conventicle  Act  was  renewed  in  1670  with 
fresh  vigor  and  the  danger  of  arrest  was  greatly 
increased.  This  period  was  one  of  intense  sufl^er- 
ing  for  Friends  and  they  never  knew  when  they 
went  to  meeting  on  Sunday  morning — "First- 
day,"  they  called  it — whether  they  would  come 


UNITED  IN  THE  IMMORTAL  SEED 


back  again  to  their  homes,  or  whether,  as  was  more 
hkely,  they  would  be  arrested  and  dragged  away 
to  prison,  perhaps  never  to  come  home  again.  The 
Sunday  after  the  new  Act  came  into  force  Fox 
says:  "I  went  to  Grace-Church  Street  [meeting] 
where  I  expected  the  storm  was  most  hkely  to 
begin."  While  Fox  was  preaching  in  the  meeting, 
the  constable  with  his  soldiers  came  and  pulled 
him  down  as  he  said,  "Blessed  are  the  peace- 
makers." He  was  put  in  charge  of  the  soldiers 
and  the  officer  said  to  him,  "You  are  the  man  I 
was  looking  for."  After  an  examination  Fox  and 
the  Friends  who  had  been  arrested  with  him  were 
set  at  liberty.  His  Friends  asked  him  where  he 
was  going  now:  "Why,"  he  said,  "I  am  going 
back  to  the  meeting,"  and  sure  enough  he  went 
straight  to  Grace-Church  Street!  The  meeting 
was  already  over  and  Fox  went  out  to  discover 
how  the  day  had  gone.  "A  glorious  time  it  was," 
he  says,  "for  the  Lord's  power  came  over  all,  and 
His  everlasting  truth  got  renown."  The  account 
continues:  "As  fast  as  some  that  were  speaking 
were  taken  down  [by  the  officers]  others  were 
moved  of  the  Lord  to  stand  up  and  speak;  to 
the  admiration  of  the  people." 

Under  the  strain  of  this  great  persecution  upon 
his  followers,  Fox  had  a  serious  return  of  his  old 
nervous  troubles.    "A  great  weight  and  oppres-  ! 
sion,"  he  says,  "fell  upon  my  spirit."    "I  was 


134 


THE  STORY  OF  GEORGE  FOX 


hardly  able  to  ride  upon  my  horse."  "I  was  much 
spent,  being  so  extremely  laden  and  burdened 
with  the  world's  spirits,  that  my  life  was  oppressed 
under  them."  "I  lay  exceeding  weak,  and  at 
last  lost  both  hearing  and  sight."  "Under  great 
sufferings  and  travails,  sorrows  and  oppressions, 
I  lay  several  weeks,  whereby  I  was  brought  so 
low  and  weak  in  body  that  few  thought  I  could 
live."  Gradually  life  and  health  and  strength 
came  back  to  him.  At  first  he  "recovered  a  little 
glimmering  sight"  and  then,  little  by  little,  both 
sight  and  hearing  returned  and  finally  "the 
Lord's  power,"  he  says,  "upheld  me  and  enabled 
me  to  declare  His  eternal  word  of  Life." 

One  of  the  first  things  he  did  after  his  recovery 
was  to  take  up  measures  to  secure  the  release  of 
his  wife  from  prison.  He  sent  Martha  Fisher  and 
another  woman  to  King  Charles  IL  to  plead  for 
Margaret  Fox's  liberty.  "They  went  in  faith 
and  in  the  Lord's  power,"  Fox  says,  and  they  were 
successful.  The  king  granted  a  discharge  under 
his  broad  seal  and  cleared  her  and  her  estate  from 
the  prcEtnunire. 

Meantime  Fox  felt  it  "laid  upon  him  by  the 
Lord  to  go  beyond  seas  to  visit  America."  He 
wrote  to  his  wife — his  "dear  Heart" — that  she 
was  at  last  a  free  woman  and  that  she  should 
"hasten  to  London,"  to  see  him  off"  for  America, 
"because  the  ship  was  then  fitting  for  the  voyage." 


UNITED  IN  THE  IMMORTAL  SEED  I35 


The  ship  was  a  yacht  named  the  Industry.  Ac- 
companied by  his  wife  and  several  Friends  he 
went  to  Gravesend,  on  the  12th  of  August,  1671, 
to  go  forth  on  his  momentous  journey.  A  large 
group  of  Friends  were  to  go  with  him  to  America 
as  companions  in  the  ministry.  They  were  Wil- 
liam Edmundson,  Thomas  Briggs,  John  Rous, 
John  Stubbsj  Solomon  Eccles,  James  Lancaster, 
John  Cartwright,  Robert  Widders,  George  Pat- 
tison,  John  Hull,  Elizabeth  Hooton  and  Elizabeth 
Miers.  One  wonders  why  Margaret  Fox  did  not 
go  too,  but  no  doubt  there  was  good  reason  why 
she  remained  behind  in  England.  She  went  on 
with  him  as  far  as  Deal,  where  they  separated  not 
to  meet  again  for  many  months  and  even  years. 

The  ship  was  a  leaky  craft  so  that  both  seamen 
and  passengers,  of  whom  there  were  fifty,  had  to 
man  the  pumps  both  day  and  night.  One  day, 
we  hope  it  was  the  worst  one,  she  sucked  in  sixteen 
inches  of  water  in  two  hours'  time.  They  had  a 
very  close  escape  from  a  "Sallee  man  of  war," 
that  is  a  Moorish  pirate  ship,  and  Fox  always 
thought  that  the  escape  was  a  miraculous  deliver- 
ance. He  himself,  as  has  already  been  said,  was 
desperately  ill  on  the  voyage,  though  he  did  not 
suffer  at  all  from  seasickness.  The  passage  took 
seven  weeks,  and,  late  in  the  evening  of  September 
third,  the  party  landed  on  the  island  of  Barbadoes 
with  Fox  still  a  very  ill  man. 


CHAPTER  XIV 


VISITING  THE   "sEED"  IN  AMERICA 

It  seems  likely  that  George  Fox  had  an  attack 
of  what  would  now  be  called  rheumatic  fever  on 
the  ship  and  during  the  early  period  of  his  stay 
in  Barbadoes.  There  was  much  work  to  be  done 
in  the  island  but  he  could  do  very  little.  He  could 
neither  walk  nor  ride.  The  wickedness  on  the 
island  depressed  him  and  lay  "as  a  weight  and 
load"  upon  him.  Gradually  he  began  to  recover 
and  the  fervor  and  energy  of  his  spirit  returned. 
He  visited  the  governor  of  the  island  to  whom  he 
afterwards  wrote  a  famous  letter,  explaining  and 
interpreting  his  religious  faith.  Large  meetings 
were  held  and  many  lives  were  reached  with  the 
message  of  Fox  and  his  Friends.  / 

After  three  months  of  activity  in  Barbadoes 
he  crossed  over  to  Jamaica  and  had  much  success- 
ful service  in  the  great  land  that  Oliver  Cromwell 
had  recently  added  to  the  colonial  possessions  of 
England.  Here  Elizabeth  Hooton  died,  departing 
"in  peace  like  a  lamb,  bearing  testimony  to  truth  N 
at  her  departure."  Seven  weeks  were  spent  in 
Jamaica  and  then  Fox  sailed,  with  most  of  his 
group  of  companions,  for  Maryland.    It  proved 

136 


VISITING  THE  "sEED"  IN  AMERICA 


to  be  a  very  difficult,  slow  and  dangerous  passage. 
The  ship  often  seemed  ready  to  sink  and  the  tack- 
ling was  stripped  off  by  the  awful  violence  of  the 
storm.  It  took  over  six  weeks  to  make  the  passage 
from  Jamaica  to  the  coast  of  Maryland,  and  when 
they  entered  Patuxent  River,  safe  and  sound, 
they  praised  the  Lord  "whose  power  hath  do- 
minion over  all,  whom  the  winds  and  the  seas 
obey." 

John  Burnyeat,  a  remarkable  Quaker  apostle, 
who  traveled  extensively  among  the  American 
Friends,  had  preceded  Fox  to  Maryland  and  had 
appointed  a  general  meeting  for  Friends  in  that 
colony.  It  began  just  as  the  party  from  Jamaica 
arrived.  Great  throngs  of  people  came  to  it, 
"some  of  considerable  quality  in  the  world's 
account,"  and  the  meeting  lasted  four  days. 
Fox  was  now  in  pretty  good  health  and  vigor. 
Travel  by  boat  and  horseback  was  hard  and  tax- 
ing, but  he  stood  it  finely.  "  Blessed  be  the  Lord," 
he  says,  "I  was  preserved  from  taking  hurt." 
Everywhere  he  went  in  America  one  of  his  first 
interests  was  to  visit  the  Indians  and  to  give  his 
message  to  them.  "It  was  upon  me  from  the 
Lord,"  he  says,  "to  send  to  the  Indian  emperor 
and  his  kings  to  come  to  the  meeting.  The  em- 
peror [head  chief]  came  and  was  at  it;  but  his 
kings,  lying  further  off,  could  not  reach  in  time; 
yet  they  came  after  with  their  cockarooses  [i.  e.. 


THE  STORY  OF  GEORGE  FOX 


head  men].  I  had  in  the  evening  two  good  op- 
portunities with  them;  they  heard  the  word  of  the 
Lord  willingly  and  confessed  to  it.  They  carried 
themselves  very  courteously  and  lovingly." 

Having  pretty  well  covered  the  Maryland  ter- 
ritory, Fox  started  off  northward  on  a  hard  and 
difficult  journey  to  New  England.  It  was  made 
on  horseback  and  by  boats,  most  of  the  way  being 
through  thick  forests.  The  crossing  of  the  Del- 
aware was  attended  with  "great  danger."  They 
had  Indian  guides  who  could  generally  speak 
a  little  English  and  were  "very  loving."  New 
Jersey  was  a  wilderness  country,  where.  Fox  says, 
"we  travelled  a  whole  day  together  without 
seeing  man  or  woman,  house  or  dwelling-place." 

A  great  meeting,  called  the  Half  Year's  Meeting, 
was  about  to  be  held  at  this  time  at  Oyster  Bay, 
on  Long  Island,  where  there  were  many  Friends. 
Fox  attended  this  meeting,  which  lasted  four 
days,  like  the  one  in  Maryland,  and  it  was  "of 
great  service  to  the  truth."  Having  traversed 
Long  Island  he  sailed  for  Newport  where  he  pro- 
posed to  attend  the  New  England  Yearly  Meeting. 
Friends  came  to  this  meeting  from  all  parts  of 
New  England,  from  as  far  east  as  Dover,  in  the 
colony  of  New  Hampshire.  Newport  itself  was 
a  great  Quaker  center.  Nicholas  Easton,  a  prom- 
inent Quaker,  the  founder  of  Newport,  was  then 
governor  of  Rhode  Island.   George  Fox  stayed  at 


VISITING  THE  "seED"  IN  AMERICA  I39 

his  house,  though  we  may  be  pretty  sure  that  he 
had  to  visit  many  other  homes  besides  in  this 
famous  Quaker  city.  The  Yearly  Meeting  lasted 
six  days  and  was  attended  by  multitudes  of 
Friends  and  others.  When  it  was  over  the  people 
were  so  moved  and  stirred  that  they  found  it 
almost  impossible  to  separate.  Fox  says:  "It 
was  hard  for  Friends  to  part;  for  the  glorious 
power  of  the  Lord,  which  was  over  all,  and  His 
blessed  truth  and  life  flowing  amongst  them,  had 
so  knit  and  united  them  together,  that  they  spent 
two  days  in  taking  leave  one  of  another,  and  of 
the  Friends  of  the  island;  and  then,  being  mightily 
filled  with  the  presence  and  power  of  the  Lord 
they  went  away,  with  joyful  hearts,  to  their 
various  habitations,  in  the  several  colonies  where 
they  lived."  Later,  after  the  great  meeting  was 
over  and  the  Friends  had  separated.  Fox  visited 
Providence  where  Roger  Williams,  the  founder 
of  the  colony,  lived.  He  believed  in  liberty  and 
he  had  done  much  to  establish  freedom  of  thought, 
but  he  did  not  approve  of  Fox  and  he  did  not  like 
the  ideas  of  the  Quakers.  For  some  reason  he 
did  not  come  to  the  meeting  to  dispute  with  Fox, 
as  everybody  expected  he  would  do.  But  after 
Fox  had  held  his  great  meeting  in  Providence  and 
had  left  the  colony,  Roger  Williams  rowed  in  his 
boat  all  the  way  to  Newport,  thirty  miles,  to 
debate  with  him!  Afterwards,  when  he  found  that 


I4O  THE  STORY  OF  GEORGE  FOX 


Fox  was  gone,  he  wrote  a  book  against  him,  which 
he  called  George  Fox  Digged  Out  of  His  Bur- 
rowes,  and  Fox  answered  it  with  another  book 
which  he  called  The  New  England  Firebrand 
Quenched. 

It  is  difficult  to  tell  why  George  Fox  did  not 
visit  the  other  New  England  colonies.  There 
were  many  large  meetings  of  Friends  in  Mas- 
sachusetts and  along  the  Piscataqua  River  in 
New  Hampshire.  John  Burnyeat  and  some  of 
the  other  travelers  went  to  these  eastern  meetings, 
but  Fox  saw  only  the  Rhode  Island  meetings. 
It  is  not  possible  to  suppose  that  he  was  afraid 
of  the  magistrates  in  Boston.  It  would  have 
been  the  first  time  in  his  life  that  he  was  ever 
afraid  of  anybody.  He  appears  to  have  felt  that 
he  was  more  needed  in  the  southern  colonies  and 
that  his  companions  could  do  the  necessary  work 
in  the  other  parts  of  New  England.  While  he 
was  visiting  Narraganset,  where  the  people  were 
"mightily  affected"  by  his  preaching,  he  heard 
that  some  of  the  magistrates  said  among  them- 
selves, that  if  they  had  money  enough  they  would 
hire  him  to  be  their  minister.  As  soon  as  George 
Fox  heard  this  remark  reported  he  said:  "It  is 
time  for  me  to  be  gone;  for  if  their  eye  is  so  much 
to  me,  or  to  any  of  us,  they  will  not  discover  their 
own  true  Teacher."  Whereupon  he  started  back 
toward  the  south. 


VISITING  THE  "sEED"  IN  AMERICA  I4I 


He  had  a  very  rough  and  stormy  journey  along 
the  Sound  to  Oyster  Bay.  From  there  he  went 
to  Flushing,  where,  under  the  famous  oak  trees, 
he  had  "a  glorious  heavenly  meeting."  Then 
he  hired  a  sloop;  and,  the  wind  serving,  "set  out 
for  the  New  Country,  now  called  Jersey."  He 
sailed  to  Middletown  Harbor  and  then  rode  thirty 
miles,  "through  woods  and  bad  bogs,  one  worse 
than  all  the  rest — a  place  which  the  people  of  the 
country  called  Purgatory. "  On  this  rough  journey 
across  New  Jersey  an  accident  befell  one  of  the 
travelers,  the  account  of  which  is  graphically 
I  given  in  the  Journal:  "John  Jay,  a  Friend  of 
Barbadoes,  who  came  with  us  from  Rhode  Island 
and  intended  to  accompany  us  through  the  woods 
of  Maryland,  being  to  try  a  horse,  got  upon  his 
back;  and  the  horse  fell  a-running,  and  cast  him 
down  upon  his  head,  and  broke  his  neck,  as  the 
people  said.  They  that  were  near  him  took  him 
up  as  dead,  carried  him  a  good  way,  and  laid  him 
on  a  tree.  I  got  to  him  as  soon  as  I  could;  and 
feeling  him,  concluded  he  was  dead.  As  I  stood 
by  hirji,  pitying  him  and  his  family,  I  took  hold 
of  his  hair,  and  his  head  turned  any  way,  his 
neck  was  so  limber.  Whereupon  I  took  his  head 
in  both  my  hands,  and  setting  my  knees  against 
the  tree,  I  raised  his  head,  and  perceived  there 
was  nothing  out  or  broken  that  way.  Then  I 
put  one  hand  under  his  chin,  and  the  other  behind 


THE  STORY  OF  GEORGE  FOX 


his  head,  and  raised  his  head  two  or  three  times 
with  all  my  strength,  and  brought  it  in.  I  soon 
perceived  his  neck  began  to  grow  stiff  again,  and 
then  he  began  to  rattle  in  the  throat,  and  quickly- 
after  to  breathe.  The  people  were  amazed;  but 
I  bid  them  have  a  good  heart,  be  of  good  faith 
and  carry  him  into  the  house.  They  did  so  and 
set  him  by  the  fire.  I  bid  them  get  him  something 
warm  to  drink,  and  put  him  to  bed.  After  he 
had  been  in  the  house  a  while  he  began  to  speak; 
but  he  did  not  know  where  he  had  been.  The 
next  day  we  passed  away  (and  he  with  us,  pretty 
well)  about  sixteen  miles  to  a  meeting  at  Middle- 
town,  through  woods  and  bogs,  and  over  a  river; 
where  we  swam  our  horses,  and  got  over  ourselves 
upon  a  hollow  tree.  Many  hundred  miles  did 
he  travel  with  us  after  this.  To  this  meeting  came 
most  of  the  people  of  the  town.  A  glorious  meet- 
ing we  had,  and  the  Truth  was  over  all;  blessed 
be  the  great  Lord  God  for  ever!" 

It  is  not  necessary  to  suppose  that  there  was 
anything  miraculous  about  this  cure.  It  shows, 
however,  a  striking  trait  in  the  character  of 
George  Fox.  He  always  knows  how  to  meet 
emergencies.  He  is  ready  for  any  kind  of  crisis. 
While  the  others  stand  around  and  weep  over  a 
dying  companion,  he  steps  in  and  acts.  He  does 
the  wisest  and  best  thing  he  knows  of  to  do  under 
the  circumstances.   He  has  a  faith  and  confidence 


VISITING  THE  "sEED"  IN  AMERICA  I43 


which  count  for  much.  His  dear  friend  William 
Penn,  who  traveled  much  with  him,  "by  night 
and  by  day,  by  sea  and  by  land,"  says:  "I 

1  never  saw  him  out  of  his  place,  or  not  a  match 
for  every  service  or  occasion."  On  the  return 
journey  from  the  northern  colonies  to  the  southern 
Fox  traveled  through  a  long  section  of  what  is 
now  Pennsylvania.  He  crossed  the  Delaware 
not  far  from  the  place  where  Burlington,  New 
Jersey,  is  now  located,  and  traversed  "the  woods 
on  the  other  side  of  Delaware  Bay." 

It  is  more  than  likely  that  this  journey  had  an 
important  historical  influence  both  on  the  later 
settlement  of  New  Jersey  and  on  the  building  of 
the  great  Quaker  colony  on  the  western  shores 
of  the  Delaware.  He  visited  William  Penn,  at 
Rickmansworth,  almost  as  soon  as  he  was  back 
again  in  England,  and  among  the  many  things 

j    they  talked  about,  we  may  be  sure  one  subject 

'  was  the  possibility  of  transferring  the  persecuted 
and  suffering  Friends  in  England  and  Wales  to 

I  the  safe  haven  of  refuge  in  these  virgin  forests 
along  the  two  sides  of  the  Delaware  River. 

It  proved  to  be  no  easy  task  to  cross  the  creeks 
and  rivers  which  flow  into  the  Delaware.  One 
of  these  Fox  calls  "a  desperate  river,"  which  was 
"  hazardous  to  us  and  our  horses. "  The  Christiana 
River  was  also  hard  to  cross.  The  party  of  Friends 
went  over  in  Indian  canoes,  swimming  their  horses 


144 


THE   STORY  OF  GEORGE  FOX 


behind.  The  main  difficulty  of  the  passage  was 
climbing  the  steep  and  miry  banks,  where  the 
horses  nearly  floundered.  All  along  the  journey 
the  Indians  received  much  attention  from  George 
Fox.  They  always  "heard  the  truth  attentively" 
and  were  *  'very  loving."  The  goal  of  the  return- 
ing journey  for  the  present  seems  to  have  been 
Tred  Haven  on  the  Chesapeake.  Here  a  great 
five  days'  meeting  was  held,  to  which  everybody 
appears  to  have  come,  magistrates  and  their 
wives,  persons  of  chief  account  in  the  country, 
Papists  and  Protestants.  As  many  as  a  thousand 
people,  in  this  new  country,  flocked  to  the  meetings. 
"I  went  by  boat,"  Fox  says,  "every  day  four  or 
five  miles  to  it,  and  there  were  so  many  boats  at 
that  time  passing  upon  the  river,  that  it  was 
almost  like  the  Thames.  The  people  said,  'There 
were  never  so  many  boats  seen  there  together 
before';  and  one  of  the  justices  said,  'He  never 
saw  so  many  people  together  in  that  country 
before.'"  It  was  "a  heavenly  meeting,"  "Friends 
were  sweetly  refreshed,  the  people  were  satisfied 
and  many  were  convinced." 

The  effect  of  Fox's  visit  to  Maryland  was  very 
marked  on  the  general  religious  life  of  the  colony. 
He  stirred  the  entire  country  around  the  Ches- 
apeake to  fresh  life.  He  next  went  on  further 
south  to  visit  the  scattered  groups  of  Friends 
in  Virginia,  where  he  found  "much  openness" 


VISITING  THE  "sEED"  IN  AMERICA  I45 


and  where  "truth  spread,"  and  then  he  set  out 
for  the  Carolinas.  The  way  was  very  difficult, 
through  pathless  forests,  "plashy  bogs  and 
swamps."  The  travelers  were  often  soaking  wet 
and  had  to  sleep  uncovered  in  the  woods.  For 
a  single  night  they  had  the  shelter  of  a  friendly 
house  at  Somerton,  in  southern  Virginia,  where 
they  had  the  comfort  of  a  house  floor  before  an 
open  fire  and  were  waited  upon  by  a  woman  who 
"had  a  sense  of  God." 

They  sailed  in  a  canoe  down  the  Chowan  River, 
then  called  the  Macocomocock.  After  holding 
a  "blessed  meeting"  with  the  people  in  that  part 
of  the  country,  the  little  party  of  travelers  canoed 
the  river  Roanoke  to  Coney-Hoe  Bay.  Here  they 
borrowed  a  boat,  as  the  water  splashed  over  their 
canoe,  and  they  went  to  visit  the  governor  of  the 
colony.  Fox's  account  is  an  interesting  one. 
He  says:  "With  this  boat  we  went  to  the  gov- 
ernor's house;  but  the  water  in  some  places  was 
so  shallow  that  the  boat  being  laden,  could  not 
swim;  so  that  we  were  fain  to  put  off  our  shoes 
and  stockings  and  wade  through  the  water  some 
distance.  The  governor,  with  his  wife,  received 
I  us  lovingly;  but  a  doctor  there  would  needs  dis- 
pute with  us.  And  truly  his  opposing  us  was  of 
good  service,  giving  occasion  for  the  opening  of 
many  things  to  the  people,  concerning  the  light 
and  Spirit  of  God,  which  he  denied  to  be  in  every 


146 


THE  STORY  OF  GEORGE  FOX 


one;  and  affirmed  that  it  was  not  in  the  Indians. 
Whereupon  I  called  an  Indian  to  us,  and  asked 
him,  'Whether  or  not  when  he  lied,  or  did  wrong 
to  any  one,  there  was  not  something  in  him  that 
reproved  him  for  it?'  He  said,  'There  was  such 
a  thing  in  him,  that  did  so  reprove  him;  and  he 
was  ashamed  when  he  had  done  wrong,  or  spoken 
wrong.'  So  we  shamed  the  doctor  before  the 
governor  and  the  people;  in  so  much  that  the 
poor  man  ran  out  so  far,  that  at  length  he  would 
not  own  the  Scriptures.  We  tarried  at  the  gov- 
ernor's that  night;  and  next  morning  he  very 
courteously  walked  with  us  himself  about  two 
miles  through  the  woods,  to  a  place  whither  he 
had  sent  our  boat  about  to  meet  us.  Taking  leave 
of  him,  we  entered  our  boat,  and  went  that  day 
about  thirty  miles  to  Joseph  Scott's,  one  of  the 
representatives  of  the  country.  There  we  had 
a  sound,  precious  meeting;  the  people  were  tender, 
and  much  desired  after  meetings.  Wherefore  at 
a  house  about  four  miles  further,  we  had  another 
meeting,  to  which  the  governor's  secretary  came, 
who  was  chief  secretary  of  the  province,  and  had 
been  formerly  convinced." 

The  return  journey  was  more  difficult  even  than 
the  southward  journey  had  been,  for  the  river 
currents  were  now  all  against  the  travelers. 
They  lay  night  after  night  in  their  wet  clothes 
until   they  reached  Somerton,  Virginia,  where 


VISITING  THE  "sEED"  IN  AMERICA  I47 


they  had  the  joy  of  the  open  hearth  fire  in  the 
home  of  the  woman  who  had  "a  sense  of  God." 
For  three  succeeding  weeks  Fox  visited  Friends 
and  meetings  in  Virginia  and  great  power  seems 
to  have  attended  his  preaching, — it  "struck  a 
dread  and  brought  a  reverence  upon  the  people's 
minds." 

Finally,  Fox  had  a  third  and  last  great  visit 
through  the  settlements  of  the  Maryland  colony. 
He  had  traveled  two  hundred  miles  from  Nance- 
mond  in  Virginia,  sailing  along  the  coast  in  a  small 
sailboat  over  which  the  waters  often  splashed,  land- 
ing on  the  shore  for  the  night,  where  he  slept  in  his 
wet  clothes  before  a  fire  of  logs  and  where  the  wolves 
often  howled  about  the  fire.  Fox  himself  often  sat 
at  the  helm  like  a  tried  sailor  and  steered  the  boat. 
He  arrived  at  Patuxent  "very  weary,"  but  ready 
for  another  "precious  meeting."  This  last  tour  of 
Maryland  occurred  in  mid-winter  and  the  weather 
was  "  bitterly  cold."  On  his  boat  journeys  to  meet- 
ings, he  was  sometimes  chilled  to  the  bone  and  al- 
most lost  the  use  of  his  hands,  they  were  "so  frozen 
and  benumbed  with  the  cold."  It  was,  however, 
a  time  of  renewed  life  and  power.  "The  mighty 
presence  of  the  Lord  was  seen  and  felt  over  all." 
A  tide  of  life  was  raised  throughout  this  entire 
region  which  lasted  in  force  for  many  generations. 
In  fact,  this  American  visit  of  George  Fox  proved 
to  be  one  of  the  greatest  religious  events  in  the 


148  THE  STORY  OF  GEORGE  FOX 


colonies  during  the  seventeenth  century.  When 
the  ship  "Woodhouse"  landed  in  Rhode  Island 
"the  irresistible  word  of  the  Lord"  had  come  to 
one  of  the  Quaker  missionaries  on  the  ship  and 
he  prophesied  that  "  the  Seed  in  America  shall 
be  as  the  sands  of  the  sea  in  number."  By  "Seed" 
he  meant  the  group  of  persons  in  America  who 
should  discover  the  Light  of  Christ  and  live  by 
it  and  so  form  the  Spiritual  Church  of  the  future. 
Wherever  there  was  anybody  ready  to  receive 
the  truth  and  to  spread  it  to  others,  there  was 
already  the  "seed"  of  a  new  and  purer  society, 
the  beginning  of  a  better  world.  Well,  George 
Fox  came  to  visit  this  "seed"  in  America  and  to 
spread  it  into  new  places.  When  he  had  finished 
his  work  around  the  Chesapeake  he  felt  that  he 
was  "clear,"  that  is,  that  he  had  done  all  he  came 
to  do  in  America,  and  with  a  free  and  joyous 
heart  he  sailed  away  for  old  England  where  more 
work  and  more  sufferings  and  more  love  were 
awaiting  him.  The  return  passage  was  a  wild 
and  stormy  one,  the  waves  of  the  tempestuous 
sea  rising  around  their  little  ship  like  mountains, 
but  the  wind  blew  in  the  right  direction  and  car- 
ried them  rapidly  across  to  their  homeland,  and 
they  arrived  safely  in  Bristol,  the  20th  of  June, 
1673,  record  speed  time,  refreshed  in  spirit 
and  improved  in  health. 


CHAPTER  XV 


IN  WORCESTER  JAIL 

As  soon  as  George  Fox  arrived  in  England 
from  his  American  journey  and  was  hailed  by  his 
friends  with  great  joy,  he  wrote  the  following 
glowing  letter  to  his  wife: 
"Dear  Heart, 

"This  day  we  came  into  Bristol  near  night, 
from  the  sea;  glory  to  the  Lord  God  over  all  for 
ever,  who  was  our  convoy  and  steered  our  course! 
The  God  of  the  whole  earth,  of  the  seas  and  winds, 
who  made  the  clouds  his  chariot,  beyond  all  words, 
blessed  be  his  name  forever!  He  is  over  all  in  his 
great  power  and  wisdom.  Amen.  Robert  Widders 
and  James  Lancaster  are  with  me,  and  we  are 
well;  glory  to  the  Lord  for  ever,  who  hath  carried 
us  through  many  perils,  perils  by  water,  and  in 
storms,  perils  by  pirates  and  robbers,  perils  in  the 
wilderness  and  amongst  false  professors!  Praises 
to  him  whose  glory  is  over  all  for  ever,  Amen! 
Therefore  mind  the  fresh  life,  and  live  all  to  God 
in  it.  I  intend  (if  the  Lord  will)  to  stay  a  while 
this  away;  it  may  be  till  the  fair.  So  no  more, 
but  my  love  to  all  Friends."   G.  F. 

Margaret  Fox  hurried  with  all  speed  from 
149 


THE  STORY  OF  GEORGE  FOX 


Swarthmore  to  Bristol  to  meet  her  husband- 
Two  of  her  daughters  with  their  husbands,  and 
William  Penn  and  his  wife,  also  came  to  share 
in  the  joyous  greetings  to  the  returned  traveler 
who  had  faced  the  perils  of  sea  and  wilderness. 
A  great  public  meeting  was  held  in  Bristol  and 
"the  Lord's  infinite  power"  was  felt  to  be  "over 
all."  Fox  preached  a  memorable  sermon  on  this 
occasion  and  the  spirits  of  the  entire  group  were 
uplifted.  After  visiting  a  number  of  communities 
and  holding  many  "precious  meetings,"  the  party 
came  to  Rickmansworth,  where  they  stopped  for 
a  visit  with  William  Penn  and  where  we  may  be- 
lieve there  was  much  talk  about  America. 

As  they  proceeded  northward,  after  a  visit  to 
London  and  to  the  Quaker  schools  for  boys  and 
girls,  and  came  on  through  Oxfordshire,  Fox  had 
a  strong  intimation  that  a  new  prison  experience 
was  coming  upon  him.  "As  I  was  sitting  at  sup- 
per," he  says,  "  I  felt  that  I  was  taken,  yet  I  said 
nothing  then  to  any  one  about  it."  The  next 
day  after  this  inward  warning  came  to  him.  Fox 
attended  "a  large  and  precious  meeting"  in  a 
barn  at  Armscott  in  Worcestershire.  The  meeting 
passed  off  undisturbed.  After  Friends  had  gone 
home  from  the  meeting  Fox  was  sitting  in  a 
Friend's  parlor  talking  to  a  group  of  Friends  when 
suddenly  a  justice  of  the  peace  and  a  "priest" 
who  was  the  informer,  came  to  arrest  him  for 


IN  WORCESTER  JAIL 


having  attended  a  meeting,  against  the  Convent- 
icle Law.i  They  came  too  late  to  find  the  meeting 
still  going  on,  because,  Fox  says,  the  priest  had 
to  delay  his  coming  as  it  was  the  christening  day 
for  his  child  and  he  "stayed  for  the  sprinkling." 
But,  though  they  thus  had  no  real  ground  for 
the  arrest,  they  seized  Fox  and  his  son-in-law 
Thomas  Lower  and  took  them  away  to  Worcester 
Jail.  It  was  naturally  a  terrible  blow  to  Margaret 
Fox  who  had  been  separated  from  her  husband 
almost  all  the  time  since  they  were  married,  and 
who  was  now  hoping  for  quiet,  happy  days  in 
Swarthmore  Hall.  Fox  himself  did  not  enjoy 
the  prospect  of  another  long  prison  experience;  but 
he  had  learned  to  keep  calm  and  to  face  whatever 
came  to  him  in  the  course  of  his  duty.  He  at 
once  wrote  this  brave  letter  to  his  "Dear  Heart": 
"Dear  Heart, 
"Thou  seemedst  to  be  a  little  grieved  when 
I  was  speaking  of  prisons,  and  when  I  was  taken; 
be  content  with  the  will  of  the  Lord  God.  For 
when  I  was  at  John  Rous's  at  Kingston,  I  had 
a  sight  of  my  being  taken  prisoner,  and  when  I 
was  at  Bray  Doily's  in  Oxfordshire,  as  I  sat  at 
supper,  I  saw  I  was  taken;  and  I  saw  I  had  a  suffer- 
ing to  undergo.  But  the  Lord's  power  is  over  all; 
blessed  be  his  holy  name  for  ever!" 

1  In  1670,  a  new  Conventicle  Act,  more  drastic  and  severe,  than 
the  former  one,  had  become  a  law. 


152 


THE  STORY  OF  GEORGE  FOX 


Thomas  Lower  had  friends  at  court,  his  brother 
being  the  King's  physician,  and  he  might  have 
been  set  free  if  he  would  have  accepted  his  own 
freedom  and  consented  to  be  separated  from 
George  Fox.  This  he  would  not  do.  He  chose 
to  remain  and  suffer  with  his  father-in-law  rather 
than  to  accept  freedom  alone.  When  the  case 
came  to  trial  at  the  Court  Sessions  and  there 
appeared  to  be  no  evidence  against  Fox  and  his 
companion,  the  officials  resorted  to  the  old  scheme 
of  ensnaring  the  Quakers  with  the  demand  for 
an  oath.  The  Judge  said:  "Mr.  Fox,  you  are  a 
famous  man  and  for  all  we  know  you  may  be 
innocent,  but  we  shall  be  better  satisfied  if  you 
will  take  the  oath  of  allegiance  and  supremacy." 
Then  they  read  the  oath  and  asked  Fox  if  he  would 
take  it.  "I  told  them,  'I  never  took  an  oath  in 
my  life,  but  I  had  always  been  true  to  the  govern- 
mefit;  that  I  was  cast  into  the  dungeon  at  Derby, 
and  kept  a  prisoner  six  months  there,  because  I 
would  not  take  up  arms  against  King  Charles 
at  Worcester  fight;  and  for  going  to  meetings  was 
carried  up  out  of  Leicestershire,  and  brought 
before  Oliver  Cromwell,  as  a  plotter  to  bring  in 
King  Charles.  And  ye  know,'  said  I, '  in  your  own 
consciences,  that  we,  the  people  called  Quakers, 
cannot  take  an  oath,  or  swear  in  any  case,  be- 
cause Christ  hath  forbidden  it.  But  as  to  the  mat- 
ter or  substance  contained  in  the  oaths,  this  I 


IN  WORCESTER  JAIL 


can  and  do  say,  that  I  do  own  and  acknowledge 
the  king  of  England  to  be  the  lawful  heir  and 
successor  to  the  realm  of  England;  and  do  abhor 
all  plots  and  plotters,  and  contrivances  against 
him;  and  I  have  nothing  in  my  heart  but  love 
and  good-will  to  him  and  all  men,  and  desire  his 
and  their  prosperity;  the  Lord  knows  it,  before 
whom  I  stand,  an  innocent  man.  And  as  to  the 
oath  of  supremacy,  I  deny  the  Pope,  and  his 
power,  and  his  religion,  and  abhor  it  with  my 
heart.'  While  I  was  speaking,  they  cried,  'give 
him  the  book;'  and  I  said,  'the  book  saith,  "Swear 
not  at  all.'"  Then  they  cried,  'take  him  away, 
jailer;'  and  I  still  speaking  on,  they  were  urgent 
upon  the  jailer,  crying,  'take  him  away,  we  shall 
have  a  meeting  here;  why  do  you  not  take  him 
away?  that  fellow  (meaning  the  jailer)  loves  to 
hear  him  preach.'  Then  the  jailer  drew  me  away, 
and  as  I  was  turning  from  them,  I  stretched  out 
my  arm  and  said,  '  the  Lord  forgive  you  who  cast 
me  into  prison  for  obeying  the  doctrine  of  Christ.' 
Thus  they  apparently  broke  their  promise  in  the 
face  of  the  country;  for  they  promised  I  should 
have  free  liberty  to  speak,  but  now  they  would 
not  give  it  to  me;  and  they  promised  they  would 
not  ensnare  us,  yet  now  they  tendered  me  the 
oaths  on  purpose  to  ensnare  me." 

Again  Thomas  Lower  had  an  opportunity  to 
go  free,  but  he  would  not  leave  his  father  and 


154 


THE  STORY  OF  GEORGE  FOX 


Stayed  on  in  the  prison.  It  was  decided  to  send 
Fox  up  to  London  for  trial  and  the  under-sheriff 
appointed  Thomas  Lower  as  his  deputy  to  escort 
the  prisoner  to  London,  so  that  these  two  men 
went  off  alone  to  the  trial  before  the  King's  Bench, 
with  the  Chief  Justice  presiding.  Fox  was  kindly 
and  leniently  treated,  and  allowed  to  lodge  at  a 
Friend's  house  while  the  trial  was  proceeding. 
Every  effort  was  made  to  induce  him  to  take  an 
oath,  but  he  was  as  immovable  as  a  mountain. 
In  the  end  he  was  sent  back  to  Worcester  Jail 
but  was  allowed  to  go  his  own  way  and  at  his  own 
leisure,  provided  only  that  he  should  be  there 
without  fail  for  the  April  Court  Assizes.  He  spent 
some  time  in  London  and  then  went  by  slow  stages 
down  to  Worcester.  He  walked  to  the  jail  with- 
out any  keeper  and  turned  himself  over  to  the 
authorities.  He  was  put  in  charge  of  a  boy  eleven 
years  old! 

Again,  at  the  Sessions,  the  old  question  of  the 
oath  came  up  and  was  discussed  at  length.  He 
declared  himself  ready  to  sign  a  paper  approving 
of  the  King's  government  and  setting  forth  his 
loyalty,  but  to  take  an  oath  he  would  not,  even 
if  he  remained  till  doomsday  in  the  prison.  Once 
more  the  case  was  postponed  to  the  next  session 
of  Court  and  he  returned  to  his  imprisonment. 
At  the  next  session  the  jailer's  son  offered  to  give 
bail  for  Fox  and  let  him  have  his  freedom.  The 


IN  WORCESTER  JAIL 


Court  decided  to  let  him  go  at  large  without  bail 
until  the  next  Court  sessions,  because  they  were 
thoroughly  convinced  that  he  was  not  a  dangerous 
subject.  By  this  provision  he  was  allowed  to  go 
up  to  London  and  attend  the  yearly  meeting  in 
May,  1674. 

Soon  after  this  meeting  was  over,  which  was 
"glorious  beyond  expression,"  Fox  returned  to 
Worcester  again  for  trial.  The  old  bugaboo  of 
the  oath  came  up  again,  and  the  Court  now  threat- 
ened to  inflict  the  sentence  oi prcemunire  upon  him 
if  he  continued  to  refuse  the  oath.  He  faced 
the  terrible  penalty  unmoved  and  went  back  to 
prison.  A  serious  attack  of  illness  came  upon  him 
soon  after  this  and  he  appears  to  have  gone  through 
another  experience  of  a  similar  sort  to  those  al- 
ready described.  Death  seemed  to  hover  over 
him  and  yet  an  invisible  power  sustained  and  re- 
freshed the  broken  man.  "One  night,"  he  says, 
"as  I  was  lying  awake  upon  my  bed  in  the  glory 
of  the  Lord,  which  was  over  all,  it  was  said  unto 
me,  'The  Lord  has  a  great  deal  more  work  for 
thee  to  do  for  Him,  before  He  takes  thee  to  Him- 
self.'" With  this  consciousness  of  divine  love  and 
care  he  could  face  the  lonely  days  and  the  hard 
fare  and  even  the  weakness  of  his  prison-worn 
body. 

Meantime  Margaret  Fox  went  to  see  the  King 
in  person  and  to  plead  for  justice  to  her  long-sufFer- 


156 


THE  STORY  OF  GEORGE  FOX 


ing  husband.  The  only  way  out  seemed  to  be  a 
pardon  from  the  King,  but  Fox  would  not  accept 
a  pardon.  A  pardon  would  indicate  that  he  was 
guilty  and  that  he  would  not  admit.  "I  had  . 
rather  lain  in  prison  all  my  days,"  Fox  says,  "  than 
have  come  out  in  any  way  dishonorable  to  the 
truth."  He  insisted  on  a  fair  trial  and  a  chance 
to  defend  himself.  It  was  finally  decided  to  bring 
him  up  once  more  to  London,  for  trial  before  the 
King's  Bench.  Thomas  Corbet,  an  able  councillor 
at  law,  pleaded  his  case  before  Sir  Matthew 
Hale,  the  Chief  Justice.  A  complete  victory  was 
won.  The  indictment  was  quashed,  and  Fox 
was  granted  his  liberty.  Some  of  the  old  adver- 
saries who  had  dogged  him  at  each  session,  tried 
to  induce  the  Chief  Justice  to  demand  the  oath  of 
him,  on  the  ground  that  he  was  a  dangerous  man 
and  ought  not  to  be  allowed  at  large.  Judge 
Hale  replied  that  he  had  heard  rumors  that  George 
Fox  was  dangerous,  but  that  he  had  heard  many 
more  reports  that  he  was  a  good  man — and  he 
ordered  the  unconquerable  man  freed  by  proclama- 
tion. He  had  been  under  arrest  and  imprisonment 
for  fourteen  months.  He  was  freed  in  time  to 
attend  London  Yearly  Meeting  in  1675 — a  time 
when  "the  everlasting  power  of  God"  was  mani- 
fested, and  toward  the  end  of  June  he  was  once 
more  permitted  to  be  in  Swarthmore  Hall  with 
his  wife.   Colonel  Kirkby,  his  old  persecutor,  now 


IN  WORCESTER  JAIL 


changed  and  softened,  came  to  visit  him  in  the 
Hall  and  bid  him  welcome  into  the  country,  and. 
Fox  says,  "he  carried  himself  very  lovingly!" 

However  attractive  Swarthmore  Hall  must 
have  seemed  after  American  forests  and  Worcester 
prison  quarters,  nothing  could  long  hold  George 
Fox  from  his  religious  travels.  The  "Seed"  in 
England  needed  him,  and  in  a  very  short  time 
he  was  off  again  on  long  journeys  through  the 
counties.  Now  one  Friend  and  now  another  ac- 
companied him  and  everywhere  in  Quaker  com- 
munities he  was  welcomed  and  appreciated.  He 
steadily  improved  the  organization  and  the  disci- 
pline; he  corrected  errors  and  wrong  practices;  he 
encouraged  the  weak  and  he  aroused  and  inspired 
the  whole  membership.  \ 

In  1677,  a  new  field  of  foreign  service  opened 
for  him  and  with  old  time  enthusiasm  he  prepared 
for  new  dangers  and  struggles.  "It  was,"  he 
says,  "upon  me  from  the  Lord  to  go  to  Holland, 
to  visit  Friends  and  to  preach  the  gospel  there, 
and  in  some  parts  of  Germany."  His  two  great 
friends,  William  Penn  and  Robert  Barclay,  went 
on  this  journey  with  him.  Besides  these  two 
pillars  he  had  also  in  his  company  George  Keith, 
John  Furley,  Isabel  Yeamans  Fox's  step-daughter, 
and  a  number  of  others.  They  found  many 
Friends  in  Holland  and  many  more  people  who 
were  near- Friends  and  sympathetic  with  the  teach- 


158  THE  STORY  OF  GEORGE  FOX 


ings  of  Fox.  They  held  great  meetings  and  debated 
with  Baptists  and  Seekers  and  Brownists  and  many 
more  little  groups  of  Christians.  Fox  says  that 
**  the  everlasting  truth  was  declared  among  them." 
One  of  the  most  interesting  episodes  of  this  visit 
was  the  happy  fellowship  with  Princess  Elizabeth, 
one  of  the  most  remarkable  women  in  Europe 
at  this  time.  She  was  the  granddaughter  of  King 
James  I.  of  England  and  the  daughter  of  Frederick, 
Elector  Palatine  and  King  of  Bohemia.  She  was 
a  great  scholar,  a  friend  of  Descartes,  the  philoso- 
pher, and  she  was  a  devoted  earnest  Christian, 
always  eager  to  learn  more  truth  and  to  discover 
more  light.  William  Penn  and  Robert  Barclay 
had  already  visited  her  at  a  former  time.  Fox 
was  unable  to  have  a  personal  visit  with  her,  and 
so  he  wrote  her  a  religious  epistle  setting  forth  to 
her  his  views  and  teaching,  which  he  sent  by  the 
hand  of  his  step-daughter.  Princess  Elizabeth 
greatly  appreciated  it  and  wrote  him  a  beautiful 
answer,  in  which  she  promised  to  follow  his  advice 
as  far  as  God  should  give  her  light  to  do  so. 
'  George  Fox,  with  an  interpreter,  took  an  ex- 
tensive journey  in  Germany,  visiting  many  Ger- 
man cities  and  hunting  out  groups  of  mystics  and 
spiritual  people  who  were  prepared  for  his  message. 
Many  were  reached  and  convinced,  and  some  who 
later  came  to  find  homes  in  Pennsylvania  were 
first  drawn  to  Friends  by  this  famous  visit  in  1677. 


IN  WORCESTER  JAIL 


Fox  went  over  to  Holland  again,  but  not  to  Ger- 
many, in  1684.  On  this  second  visit  he  met  most 
of  the  Friends  on  the  Continent,  especially  those 
in  Holland  and  Germany,  at  a  great  meeting 
in  Amsterdam.  He  had  at  this  time  an  interesting 
visit  with  a  very  remarkable  Dutchman  named 
Galenus  Abrahams,  a  leader  among  the  "Seekers" 
in  Holland.  William  Penn  and  Robert  Barclay 
had  debated  with  him  on  the  former  visit,  but 
Fox  had  not  taken  part  in  the  debate,  because 
Abrahams  refused  to  discuss  with  him.  When 
Fox  fixed  his  gaze  upon  him  and  started  to  talk 
with  him,  he  became  embarrassed  and  cried  out: 
"Take  thy  eyes  off  me;  they  pierce  me!"  But  on 
this  second  visit  Abrahams  changed  and  was 
"very  loving  and  tender  and  confessed  in  some 
measure  to  truth."  These  two  journeys  to  the 
Continent  complete  the  foreign  travels  of  George 
Fox.  His  "disciples"  went  to  almost  all  parts 
of  the  world.  They  made  their  way  to  the  Sultan; 
they  visited  the  Pope;  they  went  to  the  uttermost 
parts  of  the  earth.  But  he  felt  that  his  duty  lay 
for  the  most  part  in  building  up  the  Society  which 
had  grown  up  around  him  in  England. 

There  were  still  some  serious  returns  of  per- 
secution. As  of  old,  George  Fox  was  always  to 
be  found  where  the  danger  was  the  greatest. 
When  the  arrests  under  the  Conventicle  Law  be- 
came thick  and  frequent  in  1683,  he  always  went 


i6o 


THE  STORY  OF  GEORGE  FOX 


to  the  London  meeting  which  was  most  Hkely  to 
be  invaded  by  the  officers,  and  once  again,  though 
now  an  old  and  broken  man,  he  risked  the  chance 
of  a  new  imprisonment,  but  it  did  not  fall  upon 
him  this  time.  His  imprisonments  were  over. 
In  1688  a  great  release  of  prisoners  for  conscience' 
sake  was  made  by  the  King.  Many  hundreds 
of  Friends  came  forth  from  the  cells  where  they 
had  lain  for  months  and  years,  and  great  joy 
thrilled  through  the  heart  of  Fox  to  see  his  friends 
free.  From  this  time  until  his  death  Fox  traveled 
less  and  slowed  down  in  his  labors.  His  body 
was  not  able  any  longer  to  stand  the  strains  it 
once  had  borne.  He  found  himself  compelled 
to  go  to  the  country  frequently  for  fresh  air,  as 
London,  with  its  fogs,  seemed  to  oppress  him. 
He  was  often  in  the  country  with  William  Penn, 
watching  the  shaping  of  the  great  plans  for  the 
new  colony  in  America,  and  when  he  was  not 
preaching  or  journeying  he  was  writing  tracts 
and  epistles  and  books.  There  were  two  periods 
between  his  last  great  imprisonment  and  his  death, 
when  he  spent  a  good  deal  of  time  at  Swarthmore 
Hall.  His  wife  was  deeply  affectionate  toward 
him,  her  daughters  loved  him  like  an  own  father, 
and  he  would  have  had  the  tenderest  care  if  he 
could  have  felt  free  to  spend  his  declining  years 
in  that  quiet  retreat,  but  he  was  fashioned  for 
struggle  and  service,  and  he  had  to  work  while  any 


IN  WORCESTER  JAIL 


l6l 


Strength  remained.  So  long  as  his  body  held  his 
tireless  spirit  in  it,  he  was  always  moving  forward 
and  always  busy  with  some  work  for  the  spread 
of  the  truth  and  the  light,  but,  whether  he  thought 
about  it  or  not,  his  body  was  wearing  out  and  was 
fast  approaching  its  limit  of  endurance.  "I  was 
hardly  able,"  he  says  in  1688,  the  year  of  the  great 
English  Revolution,  "to  stay  in  a  meeting  the 
whole  time;  and  after  a  meeting  I  had  to  lie  down 
on  a  bed." 


CHAPTER  XVI 

"all  of  god  almighty's  making" 

On  the  tenth  of  January,  1691,  George  Fox 
went  on  First  Day  morning  (Sunday)  to  Grace- 
Church  Street  Meeting  in  London.  It  was  a  very 
large  meeting  and,  persecution  now  being  over, 
it  was  quiet  and  undisturbed  by  officers.  George 
Fox  preached  on  that  occasion  the  last  sermon 
of  his  life.  Those  who  heard  it  felt  that  it  opened 
"many  deep  and  weighty  things  with  great  power 
and  clearness."  Then,  having  finished  his  sermon, 
he  kneeled  down  and  prayed,  with  his  whole 
being  moved,  his  face  radiant  and  his  spirit  full 
of  reverence  and  awe.  Under  the  covering  of 
that  mighty  prayer  the  meeting  closed,  the  people 
all  shook  hands  and  scattered  to  their  homes. 
Fox  went  home  with  Henry  Goldney  in  White 
Hart  Court,  near  the  meetinghouse  by  that  name. 
A  little  group  of  devoted  Friends  walked  with  him, 
still  under  the  spell  and  power  of  the  great  meeting, 
just  ended.  As  they  went  quietly  along  through 
the  street.  Fox  told  his  Friends  that  he  felt  a 
chill  come  over  him  and  a  cold  seemed  to  strike 
into  his  heart.  "But,"  he  added,  "I  am  glad  I 
was  there  at  that  meeting;  now  I  am  clear,  I  am 

162 


"all  of  god  almighty's  making"  163 

fully  clear."  That  fine  old  word  "clear"  meant 
that  he  had  done  his  full  duty  and  had  completely 
finished  what  God  had  given  him  to  do. 

He  often  found  it  necessary  to  lie  down  for  a 
little  while  after  he  had  preached  a  powerful 
sermon,  for  all  his  vital  powers  seemed  exhausted 
with  the  pouring  out  of  his  spirit,  and  he  thought 
at  first  that  this  chill  was  only  a  result  of  his 
usual  weakness  of  body  after  a  great  effort. 
He  soon  got  up  from  the  bed  and  tried  to  walk 
about,  but  there  was  no  strength  to  command  his 
body.  It  was  quite  worn  out  and  had  come  at 
last  to  the  full  end  of  what  it  could  do.  He  soon 
returned  to  his  bed  and  lay  peaceful  and  contented, 
like  a  tired  child  tucked  comfortably  into  bed  by 
its  mother.  His  mind  remained  clear  and  un- 
clouded. He  had  once  before  in  his  life  seen  that 
there  was  an  ocean  of  darkness  and  death,  but  that 
an  infinite  ocean  of  light  and  love  flowed  over  the 
ocean  of  darkness,  and  so  now  he  rested  calm  and 
undisturbed  in  the  consciousness  of  the  infinite 
love  of  God. 

He  talked  much  about  spreading  the  truth  and 
how  after  he  was  gone  the  work  must  still  go 
forward  by  pen  and  word.  There  was  no  sign  of 
fear,  no  note  of  sadness,  no  mark  of  defeat.  Once 
he  said  to  those  about  him:  "All  is  well;  the 
Seed  of  God  reigns  over  all  and  over  death  itself. 
I  am  weak  of  body  but  the  power  of  God  is  over 


164  THE  STORY  OF  GEORGE  FOX 


all."  For  nearly  three  days  the  final  illness  lasted, 
with  steadily  increasing  weakness  of  body  and 
growing  triumph  of  spirit.  The  ancient  account 
very  happily  says:  "He  lay  in  a  heavenly  frame 
of  mind,  and  between  the  hours  of  nine  and  ten 
in  the  evening  of  the  third  day  of  the  week,  he 
quietly  departed  this  life  in  peace,  and  sweetly 
fell  asleep  in  the  Lord,  whose  blessed  truth  he  had 
livingly  and  powerfully  preached." 

His  Friends  from  far  and  near  flocked  in  to  the 
great  funeral  in  White  Hart  Court  meetinghouse, 
where  the  story  of  the  labors  and  dangers  and 
sufferings  of  the  valiant  life  were  lovingly  told 
and  the  beauty  and  sublimity  of  his  faith  in  God 
were  set  forth  with  the  triumphs  of  truth  which 
he  proclaimed.  Then  his  Friends  bore  the  worn- 
out  body  to  its  last  resting  place  among  the  graves 
of  faithful  martyrs  for  the  light,  in  Bunhill-Fields. 

His  "Dear  Heart,"  Margaret,  wrote  a  beautiful 
and  affectionate  testimony  to  his  memory  and  the 
Morning  Meeting  in  London  sent  out  to  all 
Friends  everywhere  a  tender  epistle  giving  an 
account  of  what  the  Lord  had  done  through  this 
faithful  servant  of  the  truth.  But  the  most 
remarkable  of  all  the  sincere  personal  apprecia- 
tions of  George  Fox  was  the  one  written  by  his 
intimate  friend  and  fellow-laborer,  William  Penn. 
It  is  done  in  beautiful  style.  It  breathes  a  noble 
spirit  and  it  reveals  the  genuine  character  of  the 


"all  of  god  almighty's  making"  165 


man  whom  it  seeks  to  portray.  It  touches  upon 
simple  traits  of  his  person  and  of  his  behavior  and 
it  also  deals  with  the  deepest  features  of  his  inner 
soul.  He  tells  us  that  his  friend  was  "civil  in  his 
behavior,"  i.  e.,  refined,  "beyond  all  forms  of 
breeding";  "very  temperate,  eating  little  and 
sleeping  less,  though  a  bulky  person."  Though  he 
had  little  book-learning  and  was  ignorant  of  what 
passed  in  his  day  for  science,  yet  "he  had  in  him," 
Penn  says,  "  the  foundation  of  all  useful  and  com- 
mendable knowledge  and  cherished  it  everywhere," 
and  he  always  showed  surprising  skill  in  answer- 
ing difficult  questions.  In  short,  in  a  fine,  swift 
phrase  Penn  says: "  In  all  things  he  aquitted  himself 
like  a  man^  yea  a  strong  man,  a  new  and  heavenly- 
minded  man;  a  divine  and  a  naturalist  and  all 
of  God  Almighty's  making."  He  dwells  tenderly 
upon  the  way  people  loved  his  dear  friend  "with 
unfeigned  and  unfading  love";  of  his  majestic 
presence;  of  his  awful,  living,  reverent  frame  in 
prayer;  of  his  power  to  discern  other  persons' 
spirits  and  to  master  his  own;  of  the  unique  and' 
original  quality  of  his  personality;  of  his  ability 
to  go  to  the  heart  and  marrow  of  things  and  of 
his  power  to  stand  the  universe,  with  its  storms 
and  waterspouts.  With  a  light  and  splendid  touch 
he  indicates  the  final  triumph  over  death:  "As 
he  lived,  so  he  died;  feeling  the  same  eternal  power, 
that  had  raised  and  preserved  him,  in  his  last 


THE  STORY  OF  GEORGE  FOX 


moments.  So  full  of  assurance  was  he,  that  he 
triumphed  over  death;  and  so  even  in  his  spirit  to 
the  last,  as  if  death  were  hardly  worth  notice  or  a 
mention." 

Such,  then,  was  our  new  kind  of  hero,  who 
lived  and  wrought  and  suffered  for  the  truth 
and  for  the  kingdom  of  Christ.  His  religious 
message,  like  the  man  himself,  was  direct,  clear 
and  simple.  He  would  have  nothing  to  do  with 
sham  or  insincerity  or  artificial  schemes.  Reli- 
gion for  him  was  a  way  of  living,  not  merely 
something  written  in  a  book.  It  begins  with  a 
vital  experience  of  the  living  God,  who  is  near  at 
hand,  dwelling,  moving,  working,  speaking  in  man's 
heart.  Every  time  something  in  the  soul  points 
out  the  right  course  of  action  and  reveals  what 
is  wrong,  God  is  there.  Whenever  truth  triumphs 
over  error  and  light  over  darkness  and  purity  over 
evil  and  goodness  over  wickedness  and  love  over 
hate  there  God  is  working  His  work  of  the  new 
creation  in  the  world  to-day.  His  kingdom  comes 
as  fast  as  people  like  us  turn  toward  the  true  light 
and  love  it  and  follow  it  and  do  it.  God  is  not 
far  off  above  the  sky  or  hidden  in  the  past  history 
of  the  world,  a  Being  who  once  revealed  Himself 
to  a  chosen  few  and  then  ceased  to  speak  to  human 
hearts.  He  is  always  speaking  to  men,  always 
sending  out  His  light  and  love,  always  revealing 
His  will.  He  is  as  near  the  soul  as  is  the  air  to  the 


"all  of  god  almighty's  making"  167 


bird.  This  was  the  central  teaching  of  George 
Fox,  and  something  like  this  he  preached  through 
the  English  counties  and  along  the  Atlantic  coast- 
line of  America,  in  the  West  Indies,  in  Wales,  in 
Ireland,  in  Scotland,  in  Holland  and  in  Germany. 

This  idea,  this  "truth,"  he  always  called  it, 
made  him  believe  in  the  infinite  preciousness  and 
worth  of  every  person  in  the  world.  Close  be- 
hind the  human  face  was  the  holy  habitation  of 
God.  Here  within  was  the  only  true  temple  and 
here  every  listening  soul,  no  matter  how  poor  or 
how  humble,  might  hear  the  voice  of  the  infinite 
One.  It  made  him  believe,  too,  that  woman  was 
in  every  way  man's  companion  and  equal.  One 
was  not  more  precious  or  more  exalted  than  the 
other.  Through  both  alike  God  could  speak  and 
through  both  alike  He  could  do  His  spiritual  work 
for  the  making  of  a  new  world  after  the  divine 
pattern.  He  did  not  debate  about  women's  rights. 
He  proclaimed  their  equal  privilege  and  respon- 
sibility with  men  and  called  upon  them  to  rise 
up  and  do  the  mighty  work  in  the  world  for  which 
they  were  made. 

He  gave  a  new  importance  to  silence  in  worship. 
If  God  was  near  the  soul,  as  he  kept  saying  He 
was,  then  one  way  to  discover  Him  and  to  hear 
His  voice  speaking  was  to  become  quiet  and  still, 
so  that  He  could  be  heard.  W^hen  we  wish  to 
hear  an  important  message  over  the  telephone  we 


i68 


THE  STORY  OF  GEORGE  FOX 


prepare  for  it  by  hushing  all  conversation  and  un- 
neccessary  noises  in  the  room.  We  give  the  mes- 
sage a  chance  to  reach  us,  which  it  would  not  have 
if  the  din  prevailed  around  us.  So,  too,  with  the 
greatest  of  all  messages,  we  must  prepare  for  it. 
We  must  listen  before  we  talk.  We  must  hearken 
before  we  speak.  Because  George  Fox  believed 
this  he  arranged  for  periods  of  silence  in  his  meet- 
ings. He  preferred  to  listen  rather  than  to  speak 
and  only  to  speak  after  he  had  heard  God  speak. 

He  taught  that,  in  any  case,  religion  is  not 
words,  words,  words,  but  real  experience  of  God. 
It  is  always  better  to  see  a  sunset  than  to  hear  a 
description  of  one;  it  is  worth  much  more  to  see 
the  Sistine  Madonna  than  to  read  about  it  in  a 
book;  it  is  much  more  thrilling  to  climb  a  moun- 
tain peak  than  to  see  a  picture  of  a  man  climbing 
one;  and  it  is  infinitely  more  important  to  feel  the 
tender  presence  of  the  living  God  than  it  is  to 
hear  somebody  tell  how  Abraham  and  Elijah, 
ages  ago,  felt  it.  George  Fox  knew  this  fact,  he 
himself  had  had  this  firsthand  experience  and  he 
called  his  generation  to  get  the  same  experience 
for  themselves.  He  meant  to  put  vital  religion 
within  the  reach  of  everybody.  He  wanted  to 
make  everybody  his  own  priest.  He  hoped  to 
make  religion  as  free  and  as  universal  as  sunlight 
and  air.  He  tried  to  reproduce  in  the  world  of 
his  day  the  kind  of  Church  which  the  New  Testa- 


"all  of  god  almighty's  making"  169 

ment  tells  about  in  its  wonderful  pages.  It  would 
be  a  Church  in  which  everybody  should  have  a 
part  and  a  share.  It  would  be  a  Church  with 
Christ  for  the  real  Head  of  it,  a  Church  with  the 
living  Spirit  of  God  moving  and  working  in  all  its 
members.  It  would  be  a  Church  through  which 
the  will  of  God  was  constantly  being  freshly  re- 
vealed, a  living,  growing,  expanding,  transforming 
Church. 

Because  he  believed  these  things  he  was  a  man 
full  of  faith  and  hope  and  good  cheer.  "The  Seed 
of  God  reigns,"  were  his  living  words  as  well  as 
his  dying  words.  "An  ocean  of  light  and  love 
flows  over  the  ocean  of  darkness."  You  cannot 
down  a  man  who  has  a  faith  like  that.  Prisons 
have  no  terror  for  him,  persecution  does  not  break 
his  nerve.  He  knows  that  God  is  really  working 
all  things  up  to  better  and  that  the  brave  man  can 
wait  in  patience.  "Love  the  truth,"  he  once  said, 
"more  than  all,  and  go  on  in  the  mighty  power  of 
God  as  good  soldiers  of  Jesus  Christ."  We  can 
surely  agree  with  the  testimony  which  his  intimate 
friend  Thomas  Ellwood  gave  him:  He  was  "val- 
iant for  the  Truth,  bold  in  asserting  it,  patient  in 
suffering  for  It,  unwearied  in  laboring  for  it,  steady 
in  his  testimony  to  it,  immovable  as  a  rock."  A 
man  who  lived  that  way  had  a  right  to  say,  as  he 
faced  death  unmoved,  "I  am  clear,  I  am  fully 
clear." 

Printed  in  the  United  States  of  America. 


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G A YLORD 

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